Truth's Disgrace
by SonicaDarkness
Summary: After the first incident of what happened with Alcorin, Zyro and the others are left out in the cold to fight a battle they had believed was over, and they must be ready to fight for everything they believed in - and this time, there are far greater circumstances. Warnings inside. Rated M for violence and suggestive themes.
1. Prologue

**Hello, and welcome to a new story I like to call Truth's Disgrace! This is the sequel to Gingka's Deceit. You know, that story with the cliffhanger ending that more than likely left a lot of you ticked off? Well, you'll be happy to know that the story continues in this one, where we'll finally learn some things that weren't explained last time.**

 **The warnings for this story are listed below, if any of these bother you, I suggest to only continue at your own risk.**

 **Warnings: Violence, Blood, Death, Murder, Suicide (Mentioned), Psychotic Behavior, Emotional Torture, Mental Torture, Depression, Sexual Harassment, Self-Harm, Religious Symbols, Child Abuse (Mentioned), Animal Abuse, Idolatry (Implied), Incest (Implied), Selfcest (Implied), Racism (Implied), Stalking, and Vomiting.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade, all rights go to the rightful owners. I only own some characters, and the plot.**

* * *

Prologue

* * *

 **I've waited.. I've waited for him... For far too long.. I will not allow anyone to separate us ever again.. My dearest.. Dearest brother...**

* * *

The sun contently beamed down on Koma Village that day, blessing the villagers with warmth and light for yet another day of their isolated lives.  
While Koma Village had been relatively empty years ago save for Hyoma and Hokuto, the villagers had steadily returned to their home as they were never to be separated from it forever - they all knew that while some may leave the Bey Village, start new lives elsewhere in the world, it would forever be their home; whether in their hearts or truly inhabiting it, the villagers of Koma were forever at home.  
Hyoma had never really left, taking up the duty to care for the village along with Hokuto, who was surprisingly still up and going after all these years - he definitely had a longer lifespan than most dogs did, seeing as how he wasn't a regular one.  
Hokuto had been the only other company that Hyoma had had while still being in Koma Village, and neither of them really liked to bring up the subject of what would happen once the talking dog died.  
But everyone could clearly see that Hokuto wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and Isha - Hyoma's mother - was especially glad at that, though thought it a bit strange that her grown son's only real friend nowadays was a dog.

Hyoma hadn't seen Gingka in 2 years, after what had had happened with his father of which no one ever spoke of anymore - many wondered where the redhead could've gone, and Hyoma's best guess had been Metal Bey City of where he knew his childhood friend had mainly receded in for a few years before leaving overseas.  
Even so, Gingka had returned when Ryo had fallen ill with the incurable disease that had killed many villagers in the past, including Gingka's own mother which had taken his father as well.  
Nobody knew exactly what happened the day Gingka had just left and Ryo had died, Hyoma saying that he had a clue as to what happened but never mentioning it to anyone no matter how much they pried.  
Eventually, everyone gave up on it and just continued with their lives, with the memories of what he had seen still haunting Hyoma's dreams to this day. And on this day, he currently sat outside on the porch swing of his childhood home, of which he still lived in with his mother and had all his life.  
The Aries Blader hummed softly to himself as he stared off into the distance, not focusing his eyes on anything as he wandered through his mind while a cool breeze gently caressed his skin.  
He often had moments like these, where he would just come out on the porch swing on sunny days like this and remember the old times that were always filled with such adventure.  
Of course, those times had also been filled with darkness to, and, though he hadn't always been there for him, he had watched as Gingka slowly matured with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

None of them would've ever guessed that someone like little Hagane would be the one to save the world on multiple occasions, but Hyoma had always known and said that Gingka had potential.  
Now that he thought about, he really missed him... It had been great to see his old friend 2 years ago while Ryo was dying, but he had just suddenly left a few days later when his father had died, probably unable to stand his grief and running off somewhere else to do so - whatever the reason, Gingka didn't come back after that.  
The house that Ryo and Gingka had previously lived in was still up on the hill, and Hyoma always made sure that it was kept in good condition since the Koma Villagers weren't exactly people who just left something to rot.  
Despite the liveliness, it just always felt so lonely here without Gingka or Ryo - one of them was dead, and the other was who-knows-where by now considering how much he tended to travel around.  
Sighing, Hyoma pushed himself up from out of the swing and stretched out his stiff muscles, letting out a sigh of relief at releasing the stress that had formed there - rolling his shoulders, Hyoma made his way across the wooden porch in his hiking boots, opening the door and taking them off on the mat of where he carefully wiped them first.  
Hyoma's footsteps were heavy as he walked through the small house, making his way to the kitchen of where he peeked in on his mother, Isha, as she swept the floor with an old broom.

"Hey, mom." Hyoma began, "We still have those photo-albums from Ryo and Gingka's house, right?" Isha pushed a strand of lavender hair out of face as she looked over to her son with crystalline blue eyes that stood out on her fair skin.  
"Umm..." She hummed, pursing her lips as her eyes wandered off, thinking for a moment as she tapped her chin with one finger and held the broom with her opposite hand, "Yes, I believe we do.. They're, uh, in the closet by my room... On the middle shelf, behind the box on the left with the stickers on it."  
Hyoma raised an eyebrow, an awkward smile forming on his lips.  
"I just needed to know which closet..." He said awkwardly, "But.. Thanks." Isha simply smiled before leaning over to get the dust pan off the table, Hyoma taking his leave as his mother crouched down and began to brush the dirt from the floor into the pan with only a little bit of difficulty.  
Abiding by his mother's words, Hyoma made his way down the hall towards her room, knowing well that there was only one closet by his mother's room, which is where they had stored most of the small boxes from Gingka and Ryo's former house - they had left all the furniture there, but they had taken out the former belongings of Ryo such as books, photo albums, pictures, and many other things that Hyoma had a hard time placing.  
Either way, the only thing really on his mind were those photo albums, of which he had only looked at last when he was about 17, mainly out of curiosity to see how him and Gingka looked when they were just little tiny ones - surprisingly, there hadn't been many pictures of Gingka when he was a baby, and even with the few that there were they were recorded to be taken when he was about 3-5 months old, none from any sooner or from when he was born.

But the ones that were taken - say about 5 or 6 - he had surprisingly long hair for an infant, though that was only shown in 2 of those pictures, and even then it looked like it had been cut from an even longer length.  
Hyoma always wondered why that was, but he didn't really question it - he even very vaguely remembered Gingka having very long hair until he was maybe 2 or 3, but he was a toddler at the time as well so it wasn't that clear.

Sliding the closet door opened, Hyoma's eyes landed on the 2 middle shelves, one closer to the bottom and one closer to the top - he took his mother's words to heart and looked at the ones on the left side, eyeing the one nearest the top with several stickers plastered on it for some reason.  
The Aries Blader carefully placed both of his hands on either side of the box, pulling it out a bit before reaching his hands in at a bit of an awkward angle so that he could get it down properly to reach the one behind it.  
The box wasn't really that heavy, so he had little difficulty with taking down and getting to the box behind it which was heavier since it contained books full of pictures.  
However, the Aries Blader managed to reach in and pull it out, setting it on the floor while bending at his waist and huffing softly from the release of pressure on his arms and back.  
He then crouched down, ignoring the dull ache in his feet and legs that always formed from when he did that, lifting up the first book and flipping the cover open just to be sure it was what he was looking for.  
A transparent pocket that held a picture of Gingka being held by his father as a baby wrapped in a blanket, the picture resting against a simple white page that assured Hyoma it was one of the few photo albums that the Hagane's had owned.  
Hyoma stood, pushing the box against the wall with his foot as to make more room while he leaned against the beige-colored wall himself, holding the photo album in one arm while he used his free hand to flip through the pages.

It was full of the pictures that he liked the most from his childhood, even being able to remember when some of them were taken.  
A small smile crept its way onto his lips as he looked at the pictures that brought back so many memories from his and Gingka's childhood, seeing some pictures of when Gingka looked about a year old and still had ridiculously long hair for a kid of his age - though maybe it was because you weren't exactly supposed to cut a baby's hair too much until they were a year or so old, but he didn't really know.  
Flipping through the pages, he watched as the pictures showed Gingka and himself progressively getting older through the years, his childhood friend's hair eventually being the same short length it always was despite being as spiked as it had always been.

It made him smile.

When Gingka was younger he looked rather adorable with long hair, though he wasn't sure how he would look now with it - either way didn't really matter to him.  
It was quite the nostalgia trip for Hyoma, seeing all of these photos from his and Gingka's childhood that now seemed so far away; maybe this was why people never really liked growing up, watching as the simple times faded away into the past and you were faced with responsibility and loneliness that came with adulthood.  
But it was nice to reminisce every now and again about the old times when things were much simpler, before Gingka had had the weight of the world thrust onto his shoulders.  
The pictures kept progressing with his and Gingka's age, only about 3 of them concerning Gingka as a baby, and several others of when he was a toddler with long hair until about 2 or 3 years old - after that he just had short hair except for the fact that it had always been spiked upwards even when he was born.  
It was hard to believe that him and Gingka had once been so small, probably half the size they were now or smaller; time sure did fly by fast- The moment Hyoma opened it to the next page, something fell out from in between the smooth pages, making a small sound once it hit the ground and drawing his attention even further towards it.  
Closing the photo album, Hyoma looked down at his feet and saw a white envelope laying absently on the floor, seemingly free of dust or dirt from apparently being kept inside a photo album for who-knows-how-long.  
A confused look crossed the Aries Blader's face, bending done and placing the photo album he'd been holding back into the box he had brought out, then picking up the envelope that had fallen on the ground flap-side up.

It had one of those wax seals on it, something he didn't even know people still did since he presumed that they only did that in Medieval times - the seal, though stamped, had no letter or any sort of symbol on it, simply blank in a round circle.  
With a raised eyebrow, Hyoma looked on the supposed blank side of the envelope, only to find his name printed in big, neat letters across the front.  
If he was right, these type of coincidental things only really happened in romance books and movies as far as knew, maybe some other genres but he didn't know - either way, Hyoma took a deep breath and went back to the side where the wax seal was, forcing his thumb-nail under the dried wax and prying it off along with the top flap, leaving the contents inside free for him to look at, whatever they were.  
Reaching inside with his index finger and thumb, Hyoma pulled out what appeared to be a folded up letter, holding the opened envelope in between a few of his fingers as he opened the paper to reveal a long letter written in neat hand-writing.  
Though his memory was a bit hazy from 2 years of his eternal absence, Hyoma almost immediately recognized it as Ryo's handwriting from the ways that he did his capital letters and the leaving of words.  
Hyoma's bright blue eyes made their way from his name at the top, and began reading the passage that he know knew had been written by Ryo, perhaps well before he died.

 _Hyoma,_

 _Somehow I knew that you would be the one to find this, so I addressed it directly to you. Maybe it's not you who's reading this, but I'll assume that it is for now. Either way, if you're reading this I'm probably already dead._  
 _I assumed that I would be, so I knew there would be no other or better way to contact you at this point. Well, unless you use one of those Ouija boards, but I'm pretty sure we've all seen what those things can do at some point in their lives._  
 _But, since I'm gone, these are my final words to you, Hyoma._  
 _However, they're not exactly the heartwarming parting words that you would have expected I say to Gingka if he had been there in the time of my death._  
 _There's something that you need to know, something that the some of the more elder villagers know, like your mother, Isha._  
 _I wouldn't recommend asking her anything about this since she would rather forget about it, but the priests of our village know well about it._  
 _What you choose to do with this inside the village is entirely up to you, but please make sure it doesn't reach outside of it, as my last wish to you._  
 _You're the only one I know I can truly trust with this, because I know that after I die, the truth will had died with me altogether, even if few of the other villagers know it. I've hidden the truth for long enough..._

 _Hyoma's fingers stiffened on the paper he was holding, dropping the envelope he had held between a few of his free ones as a shocked look crossed his face at the knowledge that he had never known - and maybe didn't want to._

 _...Hopefully, you'll be wiser than I was, Hyoma. - Ryo Hagane_


	2. Chapter 1 - Now Is The Time

Chapter 1 - Now Is The Time

* * *

Zyro ran.

He didn't know where too, but he didn't care.

He ran away from the place of where he had figured out the truth, his vision entirely blurry as he aimlessly ran to who-knows-where, fleeing from the darkness that had corrupted the memory that that place had held.  
His breathing was heavy.  
Whether it was from running for who-knows-how-long or from the pure shock of the realization he had come across in those few moments just a few minutes ago, he had no idea - more honestly, he didn't even care.  
He just wanted to be anywhere else except for the place where he and Gingka had first met.  
Where he had gone to just to remember everything before all of this, only to have those memories torn away from him by the psychopath they had believed to have defeated.  
But in their blindness, and their naivety, their gullibility, they had failed to realize the truth.  
Of course, how would anybody realize that their worst enemy had been shape-shifted to look like their best friend and hero? It had been in that split moment of realization had everything finally made sense for Zyro, at least in the time span of the last week since they had supposedly defeated Alcorin.  
Gingka's behavior, the way he had seemed so distant throughout the week, the reason why he was leaving... He had said all of those things to him. He had said he was proud of him, that he was sorry, that he was able to hear him while in his never-ending sleep that they had unwittingly made eternal; and now that Zyro knew the truth, all those words now mercilessly dug through his skin to the bone, unwillingly opening up his mind to agonizingly soak in the painful reality that they had let become reality in the first place.

Alcorin had even said it himself before 'Gingka' had arrived.  
He was able to shape-shift into anybody or anything, and he was even able to shift others that he decided the fate for - and the only thing that didn't change was the eyes.  
Those damned eyes that he had believed were Gingka's, that he had believed were his friend's and that it was all finally going to be alright after what felt like an eternity of fighting.  
Zyro had seen something missing in Gingka's eyes when he stood beside him, had thought it strange at first and yet had foolishly brushed it off in the blind belief that there was nothing wrong.  
When in reality, everything had been wrong.  
For the time that they had battled Alcorin, his voice didn't shake their spirits as it had previously - and Gingka's touch throughout the week had not been as hypnotic and strange as it had been when he was dying...  
In fact, Gingka's voice had been the one to send shivers down their spines, the one to dig down deep into the cores and try to get hold of something, but strangely backing away.  
Zyro now deemed himself a fool for not realizing it all sooner. They had all been too blinded by their belief to realize that they destroyed Gingka instead of Alcorin, not taking the experience they now had and learning from it, not looking outside the box like they should've been the whole time.  
Even if Gingka _had_ woken up at all, he would've never had the strength to get down there so fast.  
Alcorin had played them for fools.  
They had been nothing more than mere puppets to him, and they had blindly played his game the way that he had wanted them too. And they - no, he - had realized all to late that they had lost, benefiting to Alcorin's cause and just giving him his way freely.

There was now no way that anything was going to be alright after this... Everything they had fought for, almost and actually died for, had all been in vain because they were too stupid to realize the truth and listen to the instinct that had formed from the past month.  
He had promised Gingka, had forced himself not to give in to the temptation of sleep because he knew that he had to keep that promise, and he had failed him.  
Even worse was the fact that he had helped their worst enemy kill him, and that enemy now appeared in the form of their best friend and hero.

When Zyro finally managed to open his eyes, he was at the waterline.  
It was the place that Gingka had taken him so long ago to gaze at the stars while he was dying, where they bonded over astronomy and Zyro had fallen asleep from exhaustion as Gingka explained a bunch of things about the stars and constellations.  
Zyro stared out across the water with eyes just as blue, breathing hard from the running he had done as he tried to flee the darkness that had consumed the place where he and Gingka had first met.  
However, the water no longer seemed as blue as it once had been, with the seagulls flying overhead in hopes of getting a catch, the waves splashing against the wall that blocked them from the rest of the city and the sidewalk only a few feet up, the sun reflecting over the ripples that decorated the surface.  
The world that they lived in, once filled with color and life and innocence, had faded to grey from the wages of the war that they had been thrust into in the blink of an eye. Nothing was ever going to be the same after this...  
Especially not for Zyro as everything just tore through him all at once, making him barely able to stand the ache that flared in his chest as he closed his eyes tightly and gripped the railing with what appeared to be a grip harder than the iron it was made of.

 _"I'll be waiting..."_

Those words burned into his mind like the way farmers marked cattle, dancing around with little knives in each non-existent had and graving them against his consciousness as he was inevitably forced to soak in the truth that lay before him.  
He didn't want to, but he was unable to deny it.  
Everything just suddenly becoming so clear to him that he felt like breaking down on the spot.  
There was never too many people down by the shoreline, so what would it matter if he fell to his knees and cried away the endless tears he held in into the grass of which now seemed so dull to him.  
With his free hand did Zyro violently wipe at his eyes, forcing down the tears that he still somehow managed to keep in despite knowing that it definitely wasn't good for his mental health.  
Of course, he was pretty sure they were all having a few mental issues right now with everything that had happened - Maru still getting over her trauma with Dynamis, Ren still recovering from being under Alcorin's influence, Madoka from having one of her best friends almost dying; everything had seemed to go back to the way it was, everything would seem normal again, despite most of them definitely needing some therapy from a professional psychiatrist.  
But this was _never_ going to be okay... Zyro knew he had to tell the others, but _how_? How do you just tell your friends that the man they all fought to save as actually dead while the psychopath they resented lived on in his form?

Goddammit... Dammit... Dammit!..

"You really have weird ways of letting out your emotions, don't you?" Zyro opened his now red eyes, sore from rubbing them so hard to make sure the tears stayed down, startled by the voice that had come from nearby yet immediately being able to recognize it - if he had 'helped' you for over a week while putting everything on the line with his teammates, anyone would be able to recognize it.  
Slowly did Zyro look over, the tears dotting his eyelashes as they fought against him in his frustration and anxiety from knowing he had failed, blue eyes looking into the face that adorned only one of the color of liquid gold, partially covered by pastel hair.  
Kira Hayama, someone Zyro knew wasn't exactly that fond of him despite all of his precious actions a week ago, shifted slightly with his stance and placed his hand on his hip in a rather feminine way that just seemed to suit him more than anything now.  
"Why do you seem so down all of a sudden?" The Bahamoote Blader questioned, tilting his head back in the slightest bit as he eyed the other blader.

Zyro didn't answer.

His bloodshot eyes simply stared at Kira, his body shaking as he still unconsciously gripped the railing in something that was perhaps stronger than the metal itself, looking like he was maybe trying to find the proper words to say and even still not knowing how to say them.  
It was only then did a feeling of pain and cold shoot up his arm from his hand and resting in his shoulder, the ginger-ravenette grimacing before loosening hi grip on the railing that he had had such a strong hold on - where his fingers had been now was a small indent that he himself could not believe he had created.  
Maybe if you were angry enough it was possible, but... Kira tilted his head, furrowing one eyebrow inward since it was the only one he had or was visible, seeing the strange behavior that Zyro was now sporting of which even he knew wasn't like him.  
Zyro breathed hard, evidently forcing down the tears that tried to make their way out of him from the anxiety that built up, stressing him out almost to the point of crying of which he had promised himself he wouldn't do.

Zyro sucked in a breath of which almost released a sob that he was unwillingly let out, still feeling the burning sensation of failure fill his body to the brim with the realization that he had come across only a few minutes prior that now felt like hours, this entire thing seeming to have taken an eternity all for it just to be thrown back in their faces.  
The Fire Blader bit his lip almost hard enough to draw blood, which he forced himself not to do since he had done it twice last week and almost 3 times, struggling to find the words as his arm ached with the tension that had been roughly put on it from gripping the railing so hard.  
He couldn't put anything into words.  
He could barely even think let alone even try to speak as he desperately fought to get everything together and not breakdown in front of the person that he knew would loathe him for it and never let him hear the end of it for a few days.  
Only after several minutes of uncomfortable silence between the two - at least on Zyro's end - was Zyro finally able to utter something without breaking down in front of the other.

"I need to talk to you about something..." The ginger-ravenette said hurriedly before violently whipping at his eyes again, absolutely refusing to let the tears fall and release the pressure that was building up inside him from anxiety and frustration.  
Kira raised his one eyebrow, his stance having changed a bit seeing as how he had shifted his weight onto his opposite foot as he watched the slow process of the Fire Blader getting himself to speak - he had seen the content look on his face throughout the week, how relieved and at peace he seemed now that Gingka was okay and everything would soon be able to go back to normal.  
Then he just so happened to stumble upon him in this state, watching him as he nearly broke down from some sort of pressure that had been put on his shoulders and causing him to nearly fall to his knees with the tears landing on his red pants and the pavement beneath of him; Kira didn't know a lot about these things since he wasn't truly able to understand it to much from his sadism, but even he knew something was wrong.  
And whatever it was, it was probably no where near anything that he could think up in his mind out of wonder...

* * *

Unless he forgot to set his alarm clock, Takanosuke never slept in.

And when he forgot to set it, he slept in way past what anybody usually slept in, even for the summer.  
Today just happened to be one of those days, where his father had left early to get his job and knowing full well that his son could take care of himself - he didn't control when Takanosuke woke up, unlike when he was little and he'd wake the child from his sleep with a gentle shake of his shoulder.  
He had told his son directly that he was old enough to get up on his own now and had to be responsible; Takanosuke didn't argue against his father, taking the liberty of buying himself an alarm clock that even told the temperature in his room as well as the date and month.  
He had to constantly remind himself not to forget to set it every night for the morning, seeing as how he always slept like a log for at least 9 or so hours depending on what time he went to sleep at. But often, his body and mind wouldn't listen to the constant orders he gave them to wake up at the limit of 9 hours, they always betrayed him and made him sleep longer for mental health reasons.  
Takanosuke himself could never really complain either, since it made him feel better than waking up on the command of his alarm clock did - not that he was a morning person, anyway.

But the dreams he was cursed by did not make it anything not to argue about as he unconsciously gripped at the covers with his fingers as his blond curls spread out messily underneath him, his bangs sticking to his forehead with the sweat that had formed from the amount of twisting and turning he was doing.  
His lips were brought up in a small frown as his fingers held the blankets in a death grip that looked like it could tear the fabric apart if he tried hard enough - under his lips, his teeth were gritted together, writhing silently before the sights that he saw before his closed eyes as his mind took great displeasure in this and tried to wake him up.  
There was no serenity behind closed eyes that were squeezed shut, terrors that could never picture purely yet remained solid in his mind as day flashing before his cerulean eyes that stared at nothing but his eyelids that begged to be opened.

 _Darkness... A closed in space that didn't bother him with other people surrounding him.. Barely able to see the mostly smoothed out walls that were barely illuminated at all from the dark they stood in.._

Wake up..

Wake up..

His mind screamed at him as he tossed onto his side, bringing his legs up as if to wrap himself into a ball only to recoil from that position and stretch out, his feet fighting against the sheets as they stretched along with him.

 _A tall building upon many others, one that he had seen before but couldn't place... A helicopter?.. Something heading towards it.._

Blond curls spread across the pillow, damp with sweat as his bangs stuck to his forehead from the heat of the summer and twisting around so much.

 _Pure white figures, across from each other in a world that nearly blended in with them entirely.. Black and white as it seemed everything stood, mixed colors around him of the many people that had gathered to see.. Beings with no pigmentation except for eyes..._

A weak cry escaped Takanosuke's lips as his eyes snapped open from shock, breathing hard as he clutched the blankets in his hands while facing up towards the ceiling, a position he unwillingly moved into while he was sleeping.  
Shallow breaths came in and out through his lips, his chest rising up and down at a slow pace as he slowly recovered from the nightmares that he would have believed were reality if he wasn't awake and staring at his light brown ceiling right now.  
Propping himself up on his pillow with tense muscles, Takanosuke glanced over at his alarm clock on the bedside table that he had forgotten to set the previous night.

11:03am.

With a sigh did the blond fall back limply into his bed, finally relaxing as the tension from the nightmare passed and the light of day was finally seen.  
"I don't wanna get up.." Takanosuke whined to nobody, even though he knew he had to get out of bed at some point, especially considering the time he had slept in till.  
Groaning with annoyance of leaving the warmth of his bed - even though it could become unbearable in the summer - did the blond sit up and rub his eyes, groaning from the ache in his limbs as he swung his legs over the bed and stood up.  
A big yawn escaped him as he made his way out of his room and down the stairs towards the first floor of where he would make himself a classic breakfast of toast and orange juice.  
Yet somehow, his nightmares still seemed to stick solidly in his mind even as he plugged in the toaster...

* * *

Kira had listened to Zyro, remaining quiet as he shakily said his words in a way that sounded like he was desperately forcing himself to say the words that he had no time to think about, all of it spilling out of his lips in a way that sounded like he was just thinking as he spoke, not even paying any mind to his words as he just explained all that he had come to realize only a few minutes ago as it seemed.  
Kira watched Zyro's expression, watching as the tears came to his eyes and threatened to spill over the edges of his eyelashes before he forced them down or wiped them away, keeping them in as he definitely didn't want to cry in front of him of all people - Kira likely wouldn't even care if he did or not.  
He was a sadist, that much was clear.  
He enjoyed the physical and emotional suffering of others, which brought great pleasure to his sickening self - but within the week of which everything had went down in, things had appeared to have changed.  
He suddenly didn't get that twisted joy from seeing Zyro almost breaking down in front of him, letting all of his emotions build up in a wall that would soon come crumbling down.

Now... It almost made him feel sick to his stomach.

Zyro had changed.  
That much was clear.  
The look in his eyes had changed, the way he held himself seemed to have changed... He was relatively the same as he had been before the whole thing with Alcorin went down, but Kira could see the difference.  
And he wasn't sure whether he liked that or not.  
When Zyro had finished, Kira didn't say anything at first - he gathered all that he had heard from the other blader as they sat on the grass in front of the water that had always seemed more grey than blue to him, and established everything that Zyro believed - no, not believed... It was evident that this was not just something made up from his imagination out of anxiety of the Legendary Blader leaving Metal Bey.

"So what does this mean, exactly?" The Bahamoote Blader asked, leaning forward a bit to get a better of Zyro's face as he forced his unbearable emotions deep down into himself.  
"I-I don't know..." Zyro said, biting back a sob that tried to escape him as he slowly bottled up all of his fears and worries and screams, "I p-promised Gingka and I..."  
Zyro bit his lip for a moment, breathing in shakily through his nose as he tried to speak without failing on his words - though Kira felt generous enough to wait for him.  
"A-Alcorin's alive.. Because o-of m-me.." The Fire Blader uttered out, taking in a breath of which he shakily let out as he mainly put his hands in his hair to occupy himself, "I'm such an idiot..."

Kira scoffed silently, turning away from the other a bit but with his one eye still firmly on him.  
"Do you actually think blaming yourself is going to get you anywhere, Zyro?" He asked, and did not expect a response from the Fire Blader until he got one.  
"I know, you've said it before..." Zyro retorted, his voice shaky as he tried to speak and sustain himself, "Crying doesn't get me anywhere... I-I know..." He sniffed, rubbing at his already bloodshot and sore eyes as he tried not to let the tears fall, even though a couple had managed to slip past this barrier and slide down his cheeks.  
"Hmm.." Kira hummed, looking down at the grass for a moment before his eye made its' way back to Zyro - looks like Zyro did learn from all the scolding he had given him, though this time it may not exactly be a good thing from how much he was keeping in.

"Well, Alcorin's apparently alive..." Kira said slowly, making sure he got everything down right while keeping his eye on Zyro, "Gingka is, rightfully, dead in Alcorin's place.. Alcorin took the form of Gingka for a week and fooled us all... So, what are you going to do about that?"  
Zyro didn't respond right away, glancing over at the other blader with bloodshot blue eyes that did not look fitting to him.  
"He said he'd be waiting..." Zyro said solemnly, finding it a bit easier to keep his tears in and speak, "Just like before.."

"And what do you think that means?" Kira questioned, watching as Zyro looked over at him before looking away, "He wanted you to find him the first time, Zyro... Who ever said that he didn't want you to find him now?.."  
Zyro tried to make sense of this through his slightly blurred haze, not knowing what to make out of all of it.  
Evidently, "Gingka" had said it to him to rub it in his face that they had failed, they were not the victors in this game that he himself had set up and commanded them to do his bidding, everything working out exactly as it had to for him.

 _"Catch me if you can, Zyro..."_

Those words suddenly came to mind.

If he could... If he could...

Anything that bastard ever said was mainly to make a mockery of everything they had ever stood for, even letting them having a few precious days to think that everything was alright, that it was finally over to rub it in their faces that he had won.  
But as those words that he had heard before they had ventured down into what Alcorin's domain had been came into his head, Zyro began to believe that maybe those words weren't just to mock them.  
Of course, in Alcorin's head they had very well only been that, but it could mean something else entirely.  
"Now tell me, Zyro..." Kira said, catching Zyro's eyes with his only one, gold eye gleaming with a solemn expression, "What are you going to do now?"  
Zyro bit the inside of his lip, forcing down the tear that tried to escape him from the anxiety that still remained. He didn't answer right away, sitting there as he heard the waves solemnly splashing against the barrier that kept them down below.  
Kira just looked at him, narrowing his one eye of which he knew Zyro could feel from the sheer aura that he let off, before finally answering in a tone that made him seem like a different person.  
"Go after him..." Zyro responded softly, his bloodshot eyes staring out blankly towards the ocean that had once been so colorful with its' divine blues and reflective surface that was now changed like himself.  
"Hmph.." Kira grunted, closing his eye with a small smirk on his face, "Is that so?... Then I guess I won't be the one to stop you, exactly.. But will you tell your friends about it, is the question.."

With his only eyebrow raised, Kira watched as the other blader shifted slightly, looking away to hide the tears in his eyes as Kira's questions only seemed to stress him out more, but his feelings were unknown.  
The ginger-ravenette breathed out shakily as he gently tugged at a few locks of his hair with his left hand just to keep busy so that he wouldn't break down in front of Kira of all people - what was he supposed to say, exactly?  
Why was Kira always so difficult with him?  
Of course, Kira had been the one to keep him together throughout the entire week that Gingka had been in a coma before his death that they had let happened and caused; he wasn't exactly helpful in all terms, but he had been willing enough to keep the grounded for as long as possible and necessary, even if he claimed that he didn't even want to really 'help' at all.

"I don't know..." Was all that Zyro could bring himself to say, since he really didn't know what he was going to do.  
To go after "Gingka" was easier said than done, as he wouldn't even know where to begin looking for him at all.  
Considering the number of powers that Alcorin had, he could take the appearance of anyone, and he could even be on the other side of the world with apparent ability to teleport.  
But Zyro was willing to take his chances. Kira huffed out a breath while glancing up towards the sky of which of partially clouded with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds.  
"Well, I guess I can give you a word of advice..." The pastel-haired blader said, looking at his nails absently as he spoke, "You've fought this hard for what you've believed was right... Why stop now at all times?.. Besides, it's interesting to see how much you've changed since that kid I only wanted to see in pain..."  
Zyro didn't say anything to that, yet heard Kira's words fine while understanding where he was coming from - he honestly hadn't liked Kira at first, either, none of them had considering he was part of the DNA.  
Lifting a hand to his eyes, Zyro whipped at his eyes again, having a bit of a headache from the tears that he forced down as something pulled at his throat with an intensity that he was just able to handle.  
Kira almost felt guilt for seeing him in that state, but immediately brushed it off without hesitation as he moved to stand up.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you to that." Kira said as he stood up, stretching a bit to relieve his limbs before flicking his wrist off to the side, "I'm quite good at secrets, so you don't have to worry about me telling anybody. Whatever you do is your decision."  
Zyro looked up slowly as he heard Kira depart, not having to look to know that he was walking down the rest of the grassy hill towards the sidewalk by the waterline that he had been staring at absently with bloodshot eyes that stung from rubbing them so much.

"Kira..." Zyro called out absently, looking over to the Bahamoote Blader of who stopped walking  
when he reached the sidewalk before glancing down at him with a questionable expression.  
The Fire Blader wasn't even sure he should say anything at first, perhaps just cutting it to a simple thank you for helping them or a goodbye for the temporary - temporary? - departure.  
But what came out of his mouth was far different than what he had been thinking in his mind.

"Would you help?" Zyro asked, almost catching Kira off guard as his one eye visibly widened before sighing and turning around.  
"Depends..." He began, placing a hand on his hip, "Do I still have to return that favor?.."

This almost brought a smile to Zyro's lips - almost...

* * *

He always made sure they were never watching him when he watched others.  
He would cause the surveillance systems of his room to go to static or shut off with no hopes of turning back on until he allowed them, assuring that any microphones that were placed among the belongings he had were at a high-frequency to block anything he ever said or the noises that came from the things and people he watched.  
Of course, they all dismissed it as him finding some sort of fun with his immobility in his current state that left him irreversibly weak.  
It had indeed been that for awhile, until he found a new use for this ability that he had when the voices started in the back of his head - he had believed himself to finally be going insane from the years that he had spent in the white confines of the prison he was born in, that something had gone wrong in the tests that they still ran with him despite his condition that caused him to begin hearing things he shouldn't of.

But it didn't take long for him to establish that it wasn't schizophrenia, but something entirely different that felt rather okay on his standards; now, he shut off the lights, the cameras, and the microphones for entirely different reasons, watching as a holographic screen was brought up in front of him and allowed him to see what he wanted.  
His head rested to the side slightly, not finding the energy to lift it up so he could sit up straight of which he always had a hard time doing.  
A soft breath escaped him as eyes, that had once been a nice blue color and now a faded color as they began to return to the way they once were, observed the screen in front of him blankly, knowing full well that nobody else could see what he saw as he was now completely on his own with no eyes surrounding him.

Another soft breath escaped him as he sat there limply, a sickly tone to his skin as he observed silently.  
Narrowing blue eyes slightly, he said nothing as he watched, knowing full well that there may be nothing for him to control or help with this time.  
The voice in the back of his head was growing weaker, fainter to the point where he could barely hear it as that presence he felt so familiar with began to fade.  
It was fading... And all of it was just beginning.

 _"Please... Don't abandon him... Don't abandon..."_


	3. Chapter 2 - Liar Liars

Chapter 2 - Liar Liars

* * *

"Wait, what?" Madoka questioned, staring at Zyro in disbelief as her, Benkei, and the other younger bladers had all gathered at the WBBA building at Tsubasa's request, of which had originally been Zyro's.  
When they had first walked in the room, seeing Zyro sitting in a chair silently, the boy had looked like he had been crying or had tried to stop himself from crying - and violently.  
His eyes were still a bit bloodshot and the skin around them was a reddened color, biting the inside of his lip from apparent anxiety of which all worried them; seeing as how he had been fine and relatively happy throughout the week now that Gingka was alive and had finally woken up - despite deciding to leave until things maybe calmed down a bit - and seeing him in the state he was in now...  
Well, they could all immediately tell that it wasn't something good. They had first asked him if he was alright, Ren and Shinobu being the ones to fuss the most of which Zyro blatantly appreciated but said he was okay.  
'Okay' being the key word, was Kite made a mental note of.  
It definitely wasn't okay, from how evident it was that Zyro had likely been crying or had tried to hold it in.  
It wasn't long before Zyro told them everything, the tears reforming in his eyes but using all of his willpower to force them down so that he wouldn't almost break down for the second time that day - but the pressure of having the eyes of most of his friends and allies upon him made it even harder than before.  
He had once been able to be entirely open with them, able to talk to them without fear of breaking down in front of them even when in stressful times like this; the first incident with Alcorin had left scars upon all of them, and while it may not be evident on physical appearance, it was blatantly obvious when it went down into their souls.

The words that came out of Zyro's mouth were ones that he, once again, had no control of, not planned in saying or the order they went in even though they came out startlingly accurate even to him.  
He watched all of their expressions morph, until he was left with them staring at him in disbelief of what he was now telling them.  
It was obvious they probably wouldn't believe him, and he wouldn't blame them if they didn't - it was definitely something that was entire surreal, unimaginable in every shape or form to any regular human beings that hadn't gone through the things they had gone through.  
Maru had vaguely watched something murdered at the hands of a half-deity psychopath, Kite would've lost his little brother if the angle of the way he hit the wall hadn't been the way it had, Madoka had watched as one of her best friends lay dying with no hope of salvation, Tsubasa had been faced with the fact that there was nothing he could've done but sit back and watch as the world come crumbling down, and Ren had had her free will taken from her unwittingly.  
Unless they had known about Alcorin's true heritage and what linage he had been born into, not one of them would have been able to believe such a thing as possible. But even now they would probably turn their backs on him.

"Okay, backtrack..." Ren began, holding up her hand with her brown eyes looking towards the ceiling slightly before back to him, " _What?!_ You're saying that the entire time you guys were apparently battling Alcorin or something, it wasn't actually him, and when 'Gingka' showed up, it wasn't actually _him_?!"  
Zyro averted his blue gaze for a moment before looking back at the blond of who had only received a rather vague explanation of the whole battle, as none of them were really willing to talk about it.  
"Yeah.." He said, trying to keep his emotions down and not begin breaking down again like he had in front of Kira, "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Alright, no offense, Zyro.." Shinobu said, sighing slightly and looking down before back up at his friend, "But I find that I bit hard to believe."

"That makes two of us.." Kite said slowly, pushing his glasses up on his nose as he watched Zyro carefully with his blue eyes.  
"We defeated Alcorin, Zyro." Shinobu reminded the Fire Blader, of who didn't say anything as he still held his ground on his statement, "Kite even said he saw Gingka running down the tunnel that lead to where we were. I honestly don't see how what you're saying is possible."  
Maru, sitting in the chair that Zyro had originally been in before they walked in, looked up from peering at the ground, stopping the motion of swinging her legs back and forth since they didn't touch the ground.  
"Didn't Alcorin say something about being able to change what he looks like?" The pinkette asked nervously, a bit uncomfortable with the subject as what happened to Dynamis came back to her mind at the mention of his name.  
"Well, yeah..." Madoka said, looking absent for a moment as she tried to recall everything that had happened just last week, "But there's no way he could've done that... We would've noticed, wouldn't we?" Zyro didn't say a word as his eyes made their way through all of them, all of which were seeming very wary of how possible this could be.  
Only, it was very possible, considering the arsenal of Alcorin's apparent abilities - Zyro was just the one that knew it was the truth.  
"I swear, I'm not lying.." The Fire Blader finally said, his eyebrows knitted together slightly as he still had the memory of what had happened with "Gingka" fresh in his mind, "If we've got any sense after all of that, than you'd know this isn't something I would lie about!.."

Benkei scratched his chin, thinking for a moment, but didn't say a word.  
He hadn't been there, and had - as Kite, Ren, Eight, and Tsubasa did - received a rather vague explanation of what had happened, with Gingka's supposed death which had only lasted a few minutes.  
"Okay, let's say that you are right, Zyro.." Tsubasa said calmly, taking all of this into consideration like he had learned to do throughout his many years of working with the WBBA, "What are we supposed to do? We've fought as hard as we could, and some of us nearly lost our lives. 2 people - our friends - are dead because of him. What are you expecting us to do?"

"I'm not expecting you to do anything..." This choice of words is what surprised most of them, watching as Zyro's expression became grave and his blue eyes once more went down to the ground of where he knew he would see nothing.  
"Then what are _you_ going to do?" Kite questioned, looking at Zyro warily, "Suggesting that your crazy idea is right.."  
Zyro didn't answer at first.  
Normally, he wouldn't be bothered if his friends thought of him as crazy, considering he did kind of have that thrill for excitement and danger and a few ideas that may be a little over the top, but this time it was different.  
Zyro knew that he wasn't crazy, he knew that he wasn't imagining it when 'Gingka' had said those words to him, when he had felt his touch that had no longer been as strange and hypnotic as it once had. He knew this was real - they just had a hard time believing him, as they just wanted to believe all of it was finally over and they could all get on with their lives; honestly, he wished that as well.  
"I'm going after him." Zyro said, finally looking up towards his friends of who now looked at him in utter shock and surprise.  
"Are you crazy?!" Ren exclaimed, throwing her hands out to her sides, "Zyro, do you even know where the guy is? I mean, yeah, he left, but that's all that he ever told any of us!"

"No, I don't." The Fire Blader said bluntly, "But I'll find him if I have to cheat death again.. He's hurt enough people."  
Madoka sighed, exchanging a glance with Maru who's lavender eyes said quite a lot more than she could have ever said - the pinkette looked down for a moment before looking up absently.  
"I believe him..." She said in a subdued voice, drawing the attention of most of the others. Nobody said a word at Maru's declaration, and Zyro remained to stand his ground on what he fully believed was the truth.  
"I guess Gingka _was_ acting a bit weird..." Madoka admitted, recalling the last week in her mind and noting her friend's odd behavior throughout it, "I just don't get how Alcorin would able to do that without us noticing.. Yeah, he's the son of Nemesis, but I don't even think he would've had that much power.."  
Zyro watched them somewhat bicker among each other, glancing down at the floor with eyes that were still a bit bloodshot and sore from rubbing them so violently and keeping everything down - his temples throbbed with a small headache that pounded in the depths of his skull, nearly driving him into insanity while the voices of everyone else in the room didn't help with it.  
"I don't care what the rest of you do." Zyro announced, drawing the attention of everyone else back to the Fire Blader of who's blue eyes now burned with a fierce intensity that was - in all honesty - rather frightening, "But I'm not lying.. And you're not going to stop me from going after him.."  
With those words did Zyro head towards the doors of Tsubasa's office, the automatic metallic doors opening for him before he heard Tsubasa's voice.  
"Zyro, think about this.." The Director said firmly as he stood out from behind his desk, his golden-brown eyes narrowed to get to the point with the younger blader, "I've seen this kind of thing before, most of have.. What do you think you're need for revenge is gonna do for you-"

"I'm not doing this because of what he did to Gingka anymore!" Zyro shouted as he whirled around, a number of emotions on his face and in his eyes, all of which were impossible to identify while they all overshadowed each other.  
The entire room fell silent at Zyro's outburst, a couple of them being able to see the tears reforming in his eyes that he forced himself to keep in, a fire raging behind blue orbs that matched the usual color of the sky; nobody said a word once Zyro went on.  
"I'm doing this because I know what he could do to other people.." The ginger-ravenette continued, "And I honestly don't like the idea of just letting him go.."  
With nothing else to say, Zyro turned on his heel and left Tsubasa's office, the automatic doors closing behind him once they no longer sensed his presence and leaving the rest of them in complete silence. None of them had anything to say to the way Zyro had spoken to them, his eyes filled with an intensity that almost visibly burned around him with how hard he believed in what he had claimed to be the truth; it was evident that - though still with 'him' still being there and holding the other hand in hand - Zyro had changed.  
His appearance, of course, remained the same while his soul and personality that had been dented and damaged by what he had been through in the battle that they had fought long and hard for.  
Maru, out of all of them, was the one that fully believed Zyro was telling the truth even if it was a thought that was a bit 'far-out', even considering Alcorin's linage of a deity; the rest of them stood there not knowing what to believe. One thing they did know, is that Zyro didn't lie about many things, if anything at all - and this was something that no one, probably not even Kira, would ever think of lying about.

All of them had believed it was over, that everything was fine and they could finally get on with their lives now that Alcorin was gone - whether to believe Zyro or not was a tough decision.  
"He's telling the truth..." Eight began slowly, standing by his big brother, "Isn't he?" Kite placed his hand on Eight's head, gently petting the ocean blue locks with the tips of his fingers as he carefully thought over the matter as well.  
Tsubasa bit the inside of his cheek as he solemnly thought all of it over, not knowing whether he should make some sort of decision or take a side on this, for this one was a situation that could have many possible outcomes.  
"Tsubasa?" Madoka questioned, a concerned look in her eyes at this up-rising situation that Zyro had brought to him.  
The silverette didn't answer at first, his golden-brown eyes looking down towards his desk before looking out the windows of his office, and then to the old friend that he had known for many years.  
"I don't know think he's lying in his own mind..." The Director said as some sort of way of making some sense of things, "But he's definitely not lying when he says that he's likely going to go after him."

"So then what do we do?" Ren questioned, a confused and stressed look on her face as they all tried to make sense of the situation that as lain about before them. Tsubasa pursed his lips for a moment before sighing and shaking his head in defeat.  
"I don't know.." He answered, leaving them all in hopeless silence...

* * *

Kira leaned forward on the railing, gazing at the Zero-G stadium with his one eye as his mind wandered elsewhere.  
The metal was cold, as well as the air around him from the wind that breeze that blew through the city - the sun was unable to help give warmth as it hid behind the clouds, making everything seem dull and grey.  
Of course, things had always been dull and grey to him since his childhood, long since corrupted from the day he had walked into the bathroom and found his mother dead in the bathtub, taking her own life and ridding herself of the world and the burden she had been given known as a child; back then, Kira had been a much more sensitive child, unable to understand why he didn't see his mother anymore until the time he was about 9 years old, a year after he had lost his right eye.  
It was after that did things change, did _he_ change.  
Years living in foster care had definitely taken their tole on him, going from the runt that could never stand up for himself to the creepy kid that we honestly all a bit frightened of with the smiles and the looks that he gave them, and the way he looked so content when one of them got hurt.  
He had been messed up since a very young age, and grew to care for no one as he only accepted acquaintances, despite his teammates of the other ex-DNA bladers.

But now, Kira didn't understand why everything was so different.

He had previously loved seeing Zyro in pain, seeing that smile whipped off his face as he cried tears of pain and sorrow and anguish - now, the thought that he ( _had_ ) enjoyed such pain of others made him feel a bit sick.  
He sighed in annoyance to himself for this - there was no way that someone like Zyro could suddenly just change his whole perspective on things, no way that he could make him feel some sort of pity for the weak and suffering when he enjoyed seeing their tears and hearing their pained and sorrowful screams that would never be answered. But it looked like Zyro may have somehow cracked that code.

"I was looking for you.." Came a voice a little ways away from the pastel-haired blader who did not have to turn around to see who it was, though he did anything and placed a hand on his hand with only one raised eyebrow.  
"Well, have you calmed yourself from you little temper tantrum?" Kira mocked, watching as Genjuro walked up to his leader with that accursed dandelion stem in his mouth, chewing on it from what was likely force of habit.  
"Captain Arrow was probably the only one who really took it the best.." Genjuro said bitterly, his irritation still evident towards the Bahamoote Blader - Kira, in all honestly, wouldn't have had it any other way, "They asked _why_ you'd help them in the first place, and you can guess I don't have any answers to that.."

"What, are you some sort of messenger pigeon, now?" Kira questioned, his stance still as sassy and intimidating as it always was, though Genjuro had gotten used to that throughout the time he had known the sadistic blader, "I honestly expected much higher of you, Genjuro... But I suppose that doesn't matter since what's done is done."  
Genjuro raised his eyebrow, taking a moment to stop chewing the dandelion stem with his shark-like teeth.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" He questioned, "Why were you even helping Kurogane in the first place?"

"Okay, first of all..." Kira began, rolling his wrist off to the side, "I wasn't _helping_ them, I just couldn't stand their pathetic whining... And second of all, I mean everything that they were going through, and I was 'helping' them with, is over.. It's 'personal matters' to them if you want to call it that."  
Genjuro, arms crossed, listened to his leaders words as he tapped his arm with one finger, chewing lightly on the dandelion which a small, satisfying crunching sound every time.  
He didn't say anything, watching as Kira looked off into the distance for a moment with an irritated look about something that Genjuro couldn't identify, though he knew Kira well enough that if he was irritated about something, there was always a good reason for it.  
And if he looked sickeningly joyful or happy in any way, it was likely because somebody had done something to hurt themselves or another either mentally, physically, or emotionally.  
Sighing from irritation, the Bahamoote blader looked over at him with his one narrowed slightly.  
"If you must know.." Kira began bitterly, "I only 'helped' Zyro because I had a favor to return to him.. That's the only reason.."

"And does he still have you in debt to that?" Genjuro questioned, rather eager for answers of which he knew Kira could see - somehow, his leader as always capable of seeing someone's true motives or emotions through eyes alone, probably because he only really had one eye or something like that.  
The pastel-haired blader sighed through his nose, seeming to think about how to answer at first before even saying anything.  
"He doesn't have me in debt to anything, Genjuro." Kira answered almost softly, much unlike him in many ways though seeming to fit the way of how quite feminine he always seemed to be, "I did it on my own.. And to be honest with you, I'd be lying if I said I regret doing so."  
Both of the ex-DNA bladers stared at each other for several moments, Kira's gaze eternally piercing and frighting to look into; whether it was from the lack of one eye, which had been that way before they had ever met, or the intense aura that he always let off, none of them would ever really know.  
It wasn't long before Genjuro sighed and looked away, his eyes staring out across the arena that they had all been in many a time in battles that were fierce, driven, and cutting it a bit close to the end with victories.  
No matter the bladers, no one could ever complain that it was a bad battle when they fought - not even Kira, of who prayed on the weak like a lion on a gazelle.

"Well, at least everything will be mainly back to the way it was when the tournament restarts.." The dirty-blonde lamented, chewing on his dandelion loosely while listening to soft crunches and squishes it made in his mouth.  
"I highly doubt that it _will_ be restarting, Genjuro.." Kira said bluntly, a little edgy with the almost sentimental moment they were caught in, which wasn't exactly something he liked - or something he was ever used to from those years in foster care where nobody really cared about anybody, because none of them were even related; well, save for one of the older kids and his younger sister. Genjuro, however, looked over at him with a confused and surprised expression, receiving a loose look from the other.  
"What are you mean it won't be restarting?" He asked, narrowing his eyes, "What do you know about this, Kira?"  
Kira hummed slightly before looking across the arena once more, his face and eye not saying much or giving any answers, as he had basically mastered the art of the poker face, or whatever it was he did.  
"Only from what Kurogane's told me.." The Bahamoote blader explained, "If he's done what I think he has, there is no way that's restarting any time soon.."

"And what happened exactly?" Genjuro asked, ceasing to chew on the stem in his mouth and raising an eyebrow, trying to pry the answers out from the leader that he knew wouldn't tell him much - Kira had always been that way.  
"Personal matters of theirs.." The pastel-haired blader said almost softly, "Either way, if I told you exactly what it was, you'd deem it absolutely ridiculous as anyone else would. Honestly, I put up with you hard-heads.."  
Genjuro didn't say anything for several moments, looking at Kira who simply looked back out across the arena of which had become a reoccurring habit with both of them while they were standing there.  
"So, what are you gonna do?" The dirty-blond finally asked, watching Kira's vague expression since he couldn't see the eye that was on the other side of his face from his head being turned towards the Zero-G stadium.  
Kira was silent for a moment, not looking at the other ex-DNA blader of who awaited an answer with painstaking patience.  
"I don't know, Genjuro." Kira said bitterly, looking towards the dirty-blond with a blank look and placing his hand on his hip, "To level with you, I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to believe anymore... Not that _I'm_ going to get sentimental."

Genjuro hummed softly for a moment after Kira's words, closing his blue eyes for a moment before opening them again, looking at Kira intently.  
"Well, then _I'll_ try and level with _you_.." The dirty-blond began, chewing on his dandelion stem which had gotten consistently shorter - wherever Genjuro even got those things or wherever they went, Kira had never known, "If you want to help Kurogane or whatever it really is, I don't care.. If you come back to us, I don't care.. Because I don't really have any right to question you, now do I?"

Both bladers stared at each other, Kira more out of surprise or shock than anything while Genjuro's was cold yet rather sincere.  
Kira, for once, was entirely devoid of anything to say as he processed the words that had come from Genjuro's mouth.

Genjuro was... Okay with it?

No, that wasn't it - he just didn't care about what he did now. Whether it was because he was his leader or not, he had no idea - he was always capable of seeing through someone's mask, and Genjuro was never any different.  
He could always see straight through him like glass, but this time even he wasn't able to distinguish what exactly his teammate was thinking.  
"Listen, Kira.." Genjuro began with a small sigh, being sure to keep his dandelion in his mouth as he spoke, which he was good at, "I don't care what you do, just don't get yourself killed... Because I know you don't trust any of us enough to allow us to try and lead.. Either way..." Genjuro's eyes stayed on Kira, even as he went to turn away from his leader to take his leave, "It's always hard to repay someone for saving your life.."  
With that, Genjuro turned away and headed back the way he had come in, their conversation over as they departed from each other for what hopefully wouldn't be the last time.  
Yet Kira still stood there, staring after Genjuro with the only eye that he had because of the accident from when he was 8, soon slowly looking away and down towards the Zero-G stadium below of where he stood.

"Hmph.." The pastel-haired blader grunted, once more leaning on the railing like he had been before Gejuro had decided to show up, his own thoughts lost to him as he stared out across the arena that he had been in so many times absently.  
Even with how much he irritated him sometimes, Kira did have to admit - though he was reserved and isolated from the others unlike the rest of them were to each other, Genjuro had been the one that had understood him the most...

* * *

Zyro had, of all places, gone to the Bey Park of where nobody was this time of day, which was strange since there was usually always people here that would battle each other for fun or out of other reasons.  
It wasn't exactly the place that was least fueled by memories that he had had with Gingka and his friends, but at this point he was beyond caring. He had meant what he said to the Director, the Manager, Madoka, and the others about going after Alcorin - Maru was the only one who really believed him, or at least admitted it.  
The others likely didn't, and Zyro could now understand why they would be in denial of him speaking the truth, why they would want to believe that he was lying and it was all finally okay like they had all seen it to be at first.  
He wanted nothing more than to believe that it was a lie as well, but Alcorin himself had proved to him that it was far from over, that they still had a battle to fight which now involved the world.  
The only thing was... Zyro had absolutely no idea where he would ever start looking for him. The psychopath had indirectly proved through Maru that he was able to teleport, and had very great distances which meant that he was probably on the other side of the world for all he knew; and with his ability to shape shift, it was probable that he could take the form of near anyone and not look like Gingka anymore.  
The only solution for Zyro was that he couldn't do it on his own, which was where his problems definitely weren't solved.  
His friends didn't believe him, save for Maru who was only 6 years old, and then there was Kira... Kira was an entirely different story.

* * *

 _"Depends..." He began, placing a hand on his hip, "Do I still have to return that favor?.."_

 _This almost brought a smile to Zyro's lips - almost._

 _The Fire Blader looked away for a moment, down towards his knees of which were half brought up to his chest and where his arms were currently resting._  
 _"I don't know.." He replied softly, not seeing the one eyebrow that Kira raised with the small hint of a smile on the edges of his purple-coated lips._  
 _Blue, bloodshot eyes went back to the other blader with the difficultly of not crying gone, as he didn't feel the need to anymore as he spoke to thee one person he had never thought he would consider a friend._  
 _"Do you?" Zyro asked, which almost seemed to catch Kira off guard, "I mean, it was your choice to help us in the first place with the first thing... So, I guess it's up to you.."_

 _The other blader stared at him for a moment, seeming to consider his words before he looked away slightly, with a face that almost made it look like he was pouting - but there was no way Kira would pout._

 _"You've changed.." He said aloud, almost to no one yet Zyro knew that he was likely talking to him, "But you're still weird.."_  
 _With no further words did Kira turn and depart from the other, of which Zyro did not protest to, rubbing at the eyes that already stung with the tears that he had shed and kept in and wiped away._  
 _Of course he had changed, for all of them had._

* * *

Zyro had said so himself that he had no control of what Kira's decision would be earlier that day, so whether or not Kira would be helping him with this was something that remained a mystery.  
The question if anyone would help him remained a mystery as he sat there alone in the Bey Park, questions perhaps forever remaining unanswered as the realization of one of the last times he had ever - and would ever - seen Gingka was in this spot.  
Well, it was at least one of the last places that he had ever spoken to him, had seen him alive and awake while even simultaneously dying.  
Zyro shivered slightly and forced down a whimper as the tears returned, silently cursing himself for letting such a thing resurface and try to break the wall that he had built around himself that kept his emotions, and even his mental health, in tact and okay.  
Zyro sighed shakily, wiping at his eyes and forcing the tears away, his temples hurting from the small headache that had decided to surface from the pressure of holding everything in and what always came when you cried.

"Zyro?" Said blader jumped slightly at the voice that came from behind him, forlorn blue eyes looking back over his shoulder and meeting with light green ones that belonged to the first friend and rival he had made in Metal Bey City.  
Zyro's shoulder relaxed slightly as he looked into the face of Shinobu, his features calming and looking down towards the ground of which he was several feet above.  
"Hey, Shinobu.." Zyro greeted absently, forcing down the tears, hearing Shinobu's footsteps as the light-haired blader walked up and sat beside his friend, knowing very well that Zyro was one that needed comfort.  
"Hey.." Shinobu responded as he settled himself beside his best friend, trying to catch Zyro's gaze even though the Fire Blader refused to look at him, "You, uh... You seemed a bit upset earlier, so.. I thought you'd want some company."  
Zyro didn't need to ask about what he spoke of, remembering very clearly what had happened earlier that day when he had gone to tell the others at the WBBA building.  
He had flipped out a bit when Tsubasa had claimed that he was going after Alcorin after revenge - the Director had been wrong about those motives.

It wasn't just about _them_ anymore, it was about other people, possibly the world of what Alcorin was capable of, especially now that he had left Metal Bey City of where he had condemned himself until Gingka was dead; but Shinobu was right when he said that he seemed upset.

He had been upset.

He still was.

"I believe you, you know.." Shinobu claimed, his eyes soft towards the blader beside him, who bit the inside of his lip at these words.  
"Definitely didn't seem like it before..." The ginger-ravenette responded almost bitterly, not looking at the light-haired blader out of fear of him seeing the tears gathering in his eyes.  
Shinobu bit his lip and looked away for a moment - yes, he hadn't believed Zyro had first when he had told them about what he believed as truth... But the more that he thought about it, the more it just somehow seemed to make the most sense out of everything.  
Gingka _had_ been acting weirdly throughout the week, reserved, almost avoiding them a bit, sometimes not even responding to his name until they tapped him on the shoulder or got his attention through other means.  
He had, strangely, been absolutely fine with no physical or internal injuries when they had gone to hospital just to be safe with him, and then not even a week after waking up from what would've been an eternal sleep, he just left.  
Left and had supposedly gone without a trace, so fast that nobody would have even know that he had been in Metal Bey at all until he was gone.  
Shinobu didn't entirely know what the others thought on this subject, save for Maru who already made her opinion clear, but he had found himself unable to deny the fact that Zyro was likely telling the truth.  
Whether what he suspected was actually true or not was currently unknown, but Shinobu was one of the few who believed him.

"Well..." The Salamander Blader began, looking over towards Zyro of who's expression was soft with half-lidded eyes that were still a bit red, "Really, the more I think about it, the more that it seems to make sense... I-I didn't think you were, uh.. Telling the truth before, but..."  
Shinobu's words trailed off as he tried to find what to say. But really, there wasn't anything that words would really do to comfort Zyro at this moment - he would probably think he was lying, or he might get upset again..  
"Thanks.." Zyro said, catching Shinobu off guard as the Fire Blader finally looked over to his friend, tiny droplets of tears decorating delicate eyelashes on eyes that had been rubbed violently over and over again - it was honestly a very uncomfortable sight to see when you thought about how hard Zyro may have been crying, if he had at all.  
"For believing me, I mean.." Zyro continued, his voice a bit shaky as the tears visibly welled in his eyes again, "I-I don't even know i-if you actually do or what, but... Thanks, I guess.."

Shinobu seemed surprise at first, before he returned the thanks with a comforting smile that somehow made Zyro feel just a bit better.  
"I-I didn't mean to, uh, freak out back there..." Zyro said as he looked away, a solemn look on his face as he glanced up towards the darkening sky that showed how much time had passed throughout the day, "I just, uh..."  
Shinobu waited patiently for Zyro to speak, watching as he bit the inside of his lip and visibly hesitated.  
Zyro knew that he couldn't repeat those words all over again - if anything, he'd break down right then and there.  
Goddammit... How was he able to talk out his emotions to Kira who didn't even care, and not Shinobu of who he knew _did_ care?..  
Whimpering softly and holding back a sob, a single tear finally made it's way from Zyro's eyes, leaving him to bite his lip as the temptation to let out his emotions only grew more intense from the tear that escaped him.  
"Zyro.." Shinobu whispered softly, gently placing a hand on the other's shoulder of which he could feel was tense and shaking.  
Zyro didn't look at Shinobu, but didn't push him away either from the simple comfort that any sort of human contact gave him. He could talk to Kira, and yet not Shinobu...

 _"Zyro, please..."_

That little whisper in the back of his mind had grown faint, no longer bothering him like it once had before when it first began in the first 3 weeks of when Gingka's condition was slowly torturing him into an eternal sleep.

 _"Don't... Leave him too..."_

The words that came from the voice as small and fragile as a mouse could no longer give him any motivation or comfort like they once had, its' pleading seeming like nothing but dull aches in his heart through everything they had been through.  
Zyro bit down on his lip as small tears ran in small droplets down his face, his bottom lip quivering slightly as he tried to force everything down like he had been for the whole week that Gingka had been in his coma.  
There was no one around except for Shinobu, so why would it matter if he saw him cry?...  
It mattered because he knew that Shinobu was the one who cared.  
Squeezing his eyes shut, Zyro bent down and but and buried his face in his hands, letting the few tears that managed to escape him fall onto his gloved palms.  
Shinobu had no idea what to at this point as he helplessly watched as Zyro cried silently, seeing the strain that he put on himself as he tried so desperately not to let out the tears that he kept in for who-knows-how-long.  
At this point, it was understandable to see Zyro in this state, as well as a few of the others with the realization that Zyro would've brought to them.

But right now, Shinobu's main priority was Zyro.  
Gently did the light-haired blader slip his arm around Zyro's shoulders, pulling him towards him into a position where the other could awkwardly lean against his shoulder, turning his body a bit so that Zyro could rest more comfortably despite the state he was currently in that frightened Shinobu to no end.  
Zyro never broke down... They had all seen Kite had a mental breakdown once, but he was a different story than Zyro was - Zyro didn't cry, at least not in front of them.  
The only difference now, as it appeared, was that Zyro had every reason to cry from the anxiety and guilt of knowing he had been the one who had failed the man he had tried so desperately to save.  
Light green eyes looked up towards the sky as he silently held his best friend of who tried to keep it in, sighing as he stared up into the darkening day that would not lead into a better tomorrow...

* * *

Alcorin gazed from a long distance towards the city of which the man of who's form he took now once called 'home'.  
Golden-brown eyes that resembled his, and yet were so different, looked at the city that now seemed so small from where he stood, faintly seeing the lights in the growing darkness of the sky as the moon began to rise from behind the clouds that overshadowed it.  
Quite a city it was, filled with life and joy and dreams of so many young bladers, understandably the Beyblade capital of the world seeing as how it was where the legend of Gingka Hagane had first began.  
Of course, it had also been the place where his legend had ended. Gingka Hagane was no more, and Alcorin had made sure of that - all of that now really remained of the famous blader was the fact that he now took on the appearance of the man he had killed.

No, he wasn't afraid to go that far, to take the appearance of Gingka himself and fool all of them into believing that it really was him, using the pity and the relief and the joy of having him back to his advantage of where he knew none of them would ever notice the physical difference.  
Either way, he wouldn't have been able to pull it off if they had not had the same eye color as each other; when shape-shifting, it was the only thing that remained the same which would give it away otherwise.  
But he and little Hagane had had the same eye color, almost entirely identical unless someone was able to see through to someone quite easily.  
At first, he had almost feared that Zyro would be the one to notice something, but he had successfully fooled the blader that he had spoken too earlier that day, had said all those nice things to just to twist the knife further once he had made him realize his stupidity and failure.  
Alcorin wasn't even sure why he now stared at Metal Bey City, of which seemed as small as an ant from the distance he was at from it, why he still took the form of the man he had killed - maybe it was simply because he liked it.  
Maybe it was because he knew that it would easier if people saw Gingka Hagane instead of what was really behind the mask that he put up.

The reason he now looked back at Metal Bey City, was because it reminded him so gingerly that Zyro was likely suffering now, emotionally shattered at the fact that he had failed so hard in protecting the blader he had wanted and tried to save with his friends.  
He wished he could see that now, but he had way more important things to tend to now that he was finally free of the place he had condemned himself to until Gingka was rid of the world.  
And now that he had done that, now that everything had gone his way as he had staged it out too, that pathetic little child barely had anything to cling onto anymore, his grip on the edges of the real world fading as he weakened and tried to scream like he had for years, yet was rendered mute.  
A small giggle escaped Alcorin's - no, Gingka's - lips in the voice that wasn't his, yet still held the same chilling power behind it like it had in his human skin.  
Whatever little Zyro chose to do now was entirely up to him, but nothing was going to take this away from him - not ever again would he allow 'him' to slip through his fingers, not ever would he lose 'him' again.  
This was everything he had fought for, everything that he had killed and deceived for, and he would not allow anyone to take 'him' away ever again.

"It's a cruel, cruel world, Zyro Kurogane..." Alcorin said out of amusement in the voice of the man he still took the form of, his eyes darkening to a black color before lighting up once more in the demonic red that he had been with, "And the strong always win.."  
A small giggle escaped his lips that would've left shudders down anyone's spine.  
Turning away, Alcorin faintly heard the weak, desperate pleas of the child that had clung to his shadow for so long with the need to fight for something, with the need to hold on to the physical world that he had been banished from all those years ago.  
Now, there was no way that child would be resurfacing ever again from the depths of the mind he had locked him into - after all, he had fought too hard for all of this to let him ruin everything now.  
All Alcorin ever wanted was 'him'. And now, as his eyes faded back to golden-brown that had matched Gingka's enough to fool anyone, he knew that he had been the one to win.  
Getting back the only thing he cared about was all that had ever mattered to him - because nothing else mattered but 'him'.


	4. Chapter 3 - Main Priorities

Chapter 3 - Main Priorities

* * *

Madoka had stayed at the WBBA while the others had left, sending Maru back to the B-Pit where Benkei promised that he would watch her for the night until Madoka got back - he offered to stay the night to keep Maru company, but the brunette insisted that she would be back before 7:00.  
Her and Tsubasa had no idea where the other younger bladers went, but they simply presumed that they all went home to think about everything that Zyro had told them earlier.  
Now, Madoka sat in the chair that Maru had originally been sitting in, hunched over with his chin resting on her hands as she looked blankly at the ground, multiple things racing through her mind at lightning speed as she recalled today's earlier events.  
Tsubasa had left for a sort of meeting with the other workers of the WBBA, supposedly saying that they would have to postpone the tournament for even longer - he would probably also tell several of the surrounding WBBA networks in Japan, such as Tokyo of which resided a couple hundred miles away, and likely the cities of Sendai, Chiba, Niigata, and Sapporo which was far up to the north, not even connected to the rest of the country of Japan.  
She knew that many people would likely become agitated by this, demanding to know why the tournament had gone on a such a long halt with no explanation, but she was also sure that Tsubasa likely other things on his mind than that.  
After all, a life was more important than some tournament that would mean nothing in the end.

The brunette sighed getting up from the chair she was sitting in and brushing down her skirt, walking over to the windows that covered one entire wall of Tsubasa's office and looking towards the sky, bringing one arm up to support the other at the elbow as she lifted her opposite hand and gently chewed on the skin around her nails.  
She read somewhere that chewing the skin around your nails or the top layer of your bottom lip was a sign of developing anxiety disorders, but considering the situation it wouldn't be a surprise.  
Her turquoise eyes were fixated upon the sky, of which was a dull blue color and beginning to fade as the sun began to go down, letting off a thin line of orange from the mountains far off; if she hadn't been as anxious as she was, she may have been able to enjoy that sight once again like she had so many times in her life.  
The conversation that they had all taken part in with Zyro raced through her mind, remembering every word that was spoken and every action that was made, ever facial expression shown and all the anxiety that ran through her at that moment.  
Now, as she thought about it, it actually seemed to make a bit of sense - and that absolutely terrified her to think that what Zyro had proposed was right; Alcorin was alive, switching his and Gingka's places with his powers that he had inherited from the god he was born of.

To think that they had destroyed the god of destruction 7 years prior only to find out that he had a flesh and blood son 7 years later was unthinkable - Madoka had never even thought that being the offspring of a god was even possible except for those Percy Jackson books.  
So much had happened a mere week, all truly starting when Gingka had collapsed in front of Zyro, Ren, Shinobu, and Benkei and had fallen into a coma - that had been unbearable enough that day to find out that Gingka was dying, and it definitely hadn't gotten any better as the week had gone on.  
Only a week and it had felt like an eternity - now, it was as if time had stopped all together, forcing her to relive the pain and anguish that she had screamed out through her tears.  
Now everything they had fought for and thought they had remade had just fallen apart with what Zyro had told them; Gingka was dead in Alcorin's place, and Alcorin was alive in his, tricking them into believing that it was finally over as they all wanted it to be before shoving it in their faces that they had been the ones to lose in the end.  
There was no way Zyro was lying... Madoka had wanted to believe so badly that he was, that he was just paranoid after everything that had happened and had freaked out when Gingka decided to leave, but now it just seemed all too possible to be impossible, to even be real.  
But considering what they knew about Alcorin, and how "Gingka" had been acting throughout the week after he had finally woken up from his eternal rest, it seemed like the only thing that could ever make sense in this situation.  
Alcorin was, in reality, the son of a destructive deity that Gingka had destroyed 7 years ago - and that offspring may have likely come back because of the grudge that he held against him.  
But whatever Alcorin's motives were or had ever been was unknown, even if he said he had come to complete what his father failed which could only be guessed to be the destruction that Nemesis had wanted.

The brunette sighed, ceasing in biting the skin around her nail of which was beginning to turn red and simply crossing her eyes, staring down towards the life below in the city she had forever known as her home.  
The sound of the automatic doors opening reached her ears and caused her to instinctively look over her shoulder and see Tsubasa walking into the room, a weary look on his face as walked over to his desk and simply leaned on it, a heavy sigh escaping him as the stress of announcing that the tournament was to be postponed longer still lingered.  
At first, Madoka had expected Hikaru to come walking in behind the Director as she often had and had been confused for a moment when she was no where in sight before reality came back to her all at once - this was all reality.  
Dynamis, Hikaru, and likely Gingka were all dead, and for all they knew Alcorin likely lived on, planning to do who-knows-what now that he was out there.  
"How did that go?" Was all the brunette asked as she turned a bit towards her old friend. Tsubasa sighed before giving her a weary smile.  
"Well, it went probably as you would expect it too..." He said with a small laugh on the edges of his voice, "I wasn't exactly able to come up with a good excuse in time, so I left them all without any answers as to why we're postponing it longer..."  
Madoka hummed softly, looking down at the ground for a moment before back up towards the silverette that she had known for many years.

"Do you think Zyro's right?" She asked, her eyes soft yet determined, looking Tsubasa dead in the eyes from across the room as she desired to know what his answer was.  
Said silverette didn't answer at first, appearing hesitant or thinking over the subject for a moment as even wasn't entirely sure what he believed - it took about a minute of silence before he looked back to her with his golden-brown eyes.  
"I'm not sure what I believe..." He answered hopelessly, "Everything just seems so confusing lately, and then when we finally think that we can get on with it all, here comes the news that Alcorin's not really gone... And Gingka is..."  
Madoka's face paled at the thought, remembering how they had all stood in that room under the WBBA building and watched as "Gingka" had destroyed whoever he had put in his place - no, they already knew who he had put in his place.  
They had watched as their best friend and hero had been shredded into the nothingness the light had faded into, she had _hugged_ that psychopath out of relief of believing that the man she loved was alive and awake.  
It was honestly disgusting to think about how that bastard would take advantage of their love, friendship, and trust towards Gingka and use it against them for his own bidding until he took their naivety and tore it up like paper.  
For Madoka, it was only possible to think about how much that all made sense now, how Gingka's behavior had been throughout the week before he just decided to leave and then supposedly disappeared with no trace of his existence left behind.

"I hate him.." She said bitterly to no one, her hands curling up into fists as he entire body shook, her face containing a calm anger while the tears began to gather, "I hate him and _everything_ he stands for.."  
Tsubasa looked at her for a moment, standing upright from leaning on his desk and making his way over to the brunette, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder to try and console her.  
"So I take it you believe him?" The Director asked out of curiosity, his voice calm and delicate and filled with nothing but compassion that he had always had for this woman.  
Madoka's shoulder shook as her grip on nothing loosened and her hands hung helplessly at her eyes with her arms, letting out a short breath that shook slightly along with her frame.  
"I-I didn't want to, at first..." She began, swallowing the bile that rose into her throat out of pure disgust that someone was willing to do anything such as what Alcorin did, "But... Now, it's all that's makes sense, I mean... Gingka was _fine_.. He _just_ woke up, and he managed to get down there so fast, I..." Madoka bit the inside of her lip as a tear fell from her eye, lifting one hand and gently wiping it off her cheek with a single finger before continuing, "I don't understand anymore.. Is this what we fought for, did we fight for _him_?"  
Tsubasa's eyes softened as he gently pulled Madoka into a small hug of which she showed no resistance to, thankful for the comfort that Tsubasa was willing to give her.

"I don't why, Tsubasa, but..." Madoka continued as she let the tears slowly fall from her eyes in small streams down fair skin, like rivers across the most beautiful of pastures that had remained so pure for all eternity, "I-I feel like I _have_ to believe him.. T-there's no way he's lying, Zyro wouldn't freak out like that if he was lying.."  
The silvernette gently pet the back of her head as she spoke through tears that decided to take pity and not rip through her violently, taking it all in as he too remembered that Zyro wasn't the kind of person who would lie or make something like that up.  
He knew as well as anybody that there was only one other thing they could do.  
"Well, I guess we were never the kind of people to just abandon our friends." He said reassuringly as her gently pulled away from the brunette with his hands on her shoulders, "And I don't think it would be a good idea for Zyro to just be wandering out around Japan aimlessly with no idea of where he's supposed to go.."  
Madoka giggled softly at that, whipping the tears away as she calmed down, feeling slightly better despite what the situation had to offer with Gingka's death and Alcorin's taking place of him.  
"Yeah..." She said, sniffing softly as the grief still remained yet remained subdued by the hope and determination that took most of its' place, "Do you think we should say something to Shinobu and the others?.."  
Tsubasa, taking his hands off of her shoulders, turned and looked out the windows that showed through to the rest of the city, the sun still high in the sky let lower than it's peak with a darkening sky behind it - the sky sure was a mysterious thing.  
"Knowing them, I think they'll know exactly what they wanna do.." Tsubasa answered, his gaze out the window being joined by Madoka's as she turned while still remaining relatively close to him - at this point, Tsubasa was the only real comfort she had left in a cruel world of where anyone would do anything for their own gain; despite likely not even being human, Alcorin was definitely no different...

* * *

Ren's blond hair bounced freely behind her as she hurried down the street, having made a decision of what she had or what she was supposed to do before she even knew what she was doing.  
Her breathing came in pants as she determinedly searched for both Sakyo and Takanosuke.  
Her first instinct was to look in the place she had found them last time about 2 weeks ago, which had been down by the shoreline - unfortunately, they weren't there this time which left her with the other specific places that she had checked before that the time before, thoughts racing through her mind as things flashed before her eyes, things she would rather forget than ever remember or bring up again.  
The moment she had heard Zyro's words that had started a very valid argument between them all, her first instinct was to believe him.  
The first thing that her mind had gone back to was the several abilities that Alcorin apparently had, such as teleporting, apparent telekinesis, and mind control as he had evidently used on her.  
But some other part of her mind told her not to jump to conclusions to quickly and question it like any logical person would - but after which she threw away that 'common sense' as it appeared to be and went with instinct had automatically told her; Zyro was telling the truth. Shinobu had run off somewhere shortly after Zyro had left, and with the lucky guess that he had gone to find him she had refrained from doing so herself and set off on a different task.

Takanosuke and Sakyo were their teammates in the tournament that was likely to be held off even longer with the situation they had been presented with, and if anybody deserved to know about this it was definitely them.  
Sure, they had been brought into everything in the practical blink of an eye when she had gone to see them and had been contacted by Kite that Maru had come back to Metal Bey, but they were just as important in all of this as the rest of them were.  
Ren had absolutely no idea where those two went in their spare time, seeing as how Takanosuke was the one who followed Sakyo around and Sakyo didn't really like being around anyone as it seemed; the last place she could think of was one of the Bey Arenas that weren't really used when things like tournaments and such came up, and seeing as how she had once seen them at one of them, it was a reasonable place to look.  
And she did just that as everything in her head was mixed up into jumbled parts, unsure of what exactly was going to happen now that Zyro had revealed to them the dire situation they had been tricked into.  
Explaining it to them might not be too hard, but it was really difficult to determine how they were going to react or if they were going to do anything about it.

Though, to Ren, it didn't really matter as she hurried her way through the city, making her way across several streets and making sure that she didn't run into the path of any oncoming cars.  
Her legs were becoming tired as she ran down the sidewalks towards her destination, her chest starting to hurt as the air was just able to get to her lungs before being exhaled once again, though she kept pushing herself as she just felt the rush of everything coming to her in a panicked frenzy.  
Small snippets of things from when she had been under Alcorin's control came back to her, having seen things through her own eyes and yet having absolutely no control over anything that she did, anything that she said, and the feeling of being entirely helpless and literally unable to do anything had been crippling until she finally fell unconscious along with her body finally being returned to her in terms of control.  
Throughout the week, she had convinced herself not to think about it - but then she was forced too once everything had been brought up barely even a week after.  
Now it was nearly impossible what to decipher anymore.  
It wasn't long before she found herself coming to the doorstep of the Bey Arena that she had been too many times, stopping and leaning against the wall to catch her breath from running to find the 2 friends that were mainly separate from the rest of them before standing upright and making her way towards the Cyclone Bey Stadium of which many young bladers like herself often resided in their free time and out of the pure joy they got from beybattling - no matter the motive, everyone could agree that a beybattle was a beybattle.

When she entered, she definitely wasn't surprised to see several young bladers around her age battling each other fiercely; what she _was_ surprised about, was that Sakyo and Takanosuke were a few of them on the sidelines, watching from up above in the seats while their body languages told everything.  
Sakyo was sitting with his back straight and arms crossed, one leg crossed over the other that was placed firmly on the ground as he watched, cold and inexpressive; Takanosuke was the exact opposite with both feet planted firmly on the ground and bent over so that elbows met knees, his chin resting on his hands with fingers that rested loosely on his cheeks and an excited look on his face, watching the Beybattles with eagerness like he always did with a light in his eyes that could've matched Zyro's if said Fire Blader still had any light in him.  
To see these 2 bladers even beside each other was a rather surreal thing - you'd honestly never think that those two polar opposites would be friends.  
Either way, Ren didn't take her time in hurrying over to the stairs and rushing up them towards where they were sitting.  
"Takanosuke, Sakyo!" She called out, drawing their attention towards her of which had previously been locked on the battle between 2 amateur bladers that wouldn't even begin to match their skill.

"Hey Ren." Takanosuke greeted with a smile, while Sakyo remained silent and simply watched her with his red eyes that had always been as sharp as a reptile's, "What are you doing here?" Ren didn't answer right away as she paused once more to catch her breath, doubling over slightly while still on her feet.  
"I've been looking..." She began through pants, "Looking _everywhere_ for you 2..." Sakyo turned his head more towards her and spoke before Takanosuke ever had a chance too.  
"Why?" He asked sternly, which she had come to know was just apart of his nature and personality.  
"It's important..." Ren answered as she finally caught her breath, able to speak properly save for the soft burning feeling in her chest from running, "Look, something kind of happened at the WBBA earlier, and I have something that I really need to tell you 2, like, _right now_.. Just... Just not here, exactly.."  
Both Takanosuke and Sakyo exchanged a brief glance at each other at seeing Ren's urgency and the sound of it in her voice, evidently showing that there was indeed something rather important that she had to tell them.  
Without a word, Sakyo stood up, Takanosuke scrambling for a moment before following in the action.

"Come on." The Dragoon Blader said roughly to Ren, who wasn't affected by his tone of voice as it was just his natural way of speaking, "We can speak elsewhere."  
Ren spared a glance at Takanosuke, who gave a small shrug with a look of 'might as well' before he followed the blader that he considered a dear friend - sighing tiredly, Ren followed as well.  
They didn't go very far at all, just across the street from the Bey Arena and into a darkened alley while remaining well near the entrance as to not become the accidental victims of anything that went on in the shadows of the buildings.  
It was here that Sakyon stopped walking and turned to Ren, Takanosuke by his side as their eyes both went immediately to Ren.  
"Alright.." Sakyo said gruffly, "What is it?" Ren bit the inside of her lip for a moment, almost hesitant to say anything that she was right here - but she knew that she had too.  
They wouldn't buy some faulty excuse that she came up with right off the bat, not even thinking about what it would be before it would escape her lips.  
At this point, she was pretty sure they were all willing to take risks of who's side who was on, and what decision they could possibly make.  
So, with a shaking soul and a hesitant tongue, Ren told them everything that Zyro had said and claimed at the WBBA building earlier, watching as their expressions morphed - well, Takanosuke's did, while Sakyo's remained relatively the same as he listened and took everything in.  
All Ren could control was what she said, and she said everything that Zyro had told them, everything that had happened at the WBBA building earlier, because she knew that there was nothing more that she could do than that...

* * *

Shinobu said nothing as he let Zyro silently weep into him, hearing his desperate attempts to force everything back in only for it to come back out once again.  
It was a heartbreaking sound that tore at this out as he unwittingly listened to Zyro's muffled sobs and felt as he shivered against him, tears wracking his body as it forced him to let out as much as possible.  
There was nothing that he could say, nothing that he could do to comfort Zyro other than just let him cry, cry out the tears that he had apparently held in and had not wanted to cry in front of anyone.  
He wanted nothing more than to say that it was okay - but that was a huge lie, it wasn't okay and it never had been okay from the moment that "Gingka" had walked into that room under the WBBA building.  
At this point, the only thing he would do was listen to Zyro's muffled sobs and whimpers as he helplessly cried, though probably still keept most of it in even with the tears that likely streamed down his face like rivers through a green glade.  
He held him silently with one arm that went around his shoulders with his hand resting just below collarbone, staring blankly past his friend's shoulder as he allowed him to let out some of his sorrow and agony and grief that he had kept suppressed for so long.

If somebody saw them like this, Shinobu honestly wouldn't care, he would just shoot them a look and send them on their way; right now, Zyro just needed to cry a bit.  
Everyone did once in awhile, and Zyro was definitely no different from the rest of them.  
So he let him lean against him for as long as he wanted and needed, letting out whatever he needed to until he felt okay enough to get himself together once more.  
It took several more minutes of silent weeping until Shinobu went Zyro shift to sit upright, letting the other pull away from him and sit properly as he wiped away the spare tears from his eyes that he did not wish to continue to let falling.  
Zyro sniffed softly, wiping away at his eyes to dry them from his pathetic - why pathetic? - little fit of crying that he had unwittingly gone through; though as much as he had wished to protest against it, the natural reflexes in his body wouldn't let him.  
"You okay?" Shinobu asked, leaning forward to get a better look at Zyro's face, which was tear-stained, his eyes red and dulled from the emotion of grief and anguish that filled him and had almost triumphed over all else.  
No, he wasn't fine. Nothing was, it never had been even though they had thought it was, it _wasn't_ okay...  
"Y-yeah.." Zyro said softly, taking deep breaths to calm himself down even though they came in and out shakily.  
Shinobu placed a hand on his back for a physical show of affection, letting Zyro know without words that he was there and he didn't have to wallow in his own sorrow alone; whether or not the ginger-ravenette got the message, he didn't know.

"Come on..." Shinobu said, standing up with a slight ache in his muscles from sitting down for so long, offering a hand out to his friend of which the other gratefully took.  
Biting the inside of his lip, Zyro smiled softly as a way of thanks before looking down, a solemn look on his face as he once more failed to look his best friend in the eye.  
As much as it annoyed him a bit, Shinobu tried to remain patient with his friend and not push him too hard, seeing as how he was in a bit of a more delicate state than he had been in the week that they had been trying to save Gingka, which had all been for naught.  
"Zyro, look..." The light-haired blader sighed, placing a hand on the Fire Blader's shoulder which managed to get his attention.  
Zyro would be listening either way, as there was nothing else to do but watch and listen and wait and hear; just because he wasn't looking at Shinobu didn't mean that he wasn't listening to him - it was the same the opposite way as well, and with Kira who never really said anything when he was explaining something to him, other than the little slaps into reality that he really needed at times.  
At least he was still sane enough to admit that.  
Assuring that Zyro was listening as they were able to make vague eye contact, Shinobu continued speaking.  
"You don't have to do this on your own.." The Salamander Blader said, unsure himself of why he was trying to comfort his best friend when he knew that pitiful words and sorrowful looks would only upset him a bit more every time, "Yeah, we didn't exactly believe you at first, but... I guess we all just kind of wanted this to be over, and I know that you probably do too, but.. If you're _this_ serious about it, we're not just leaving you out in the cold to wander around aimlessly, okay?"

Bloodshot eyes against blue eyes looked into Shinobu's own green ones, and for a split moment was Shinobu able to see a scared little child hiding from monsters under his blankets in the middle of the night, just as most kids were.  
It took a moment before Zyro let out a small huff, seeming to have calmed down a fair bit before he nodded.  
"Okay.." He said in a slightly subdued voice that was nothing like it, almost a shadow of his former self with the light and innocence to still clinging to him like a seraph to one's hand.  
A sad yet hopeful smile crossed Shinobu's face as he saw that Zyro was now able to hold himself up and together by himself - or at least, he hoped he was able to.  
His look of near admiration soon turned into a playful one and he poked the other blader on the shoulder lightly.  
"Besides..." The light-haired blader began with a small smile, "You wouldn't make it that far without us.."  
A soft chuckle was issued from Zyro's lips.  
Well, Shinobu was definitely right about that.

Despite that he was independent to do most things on his own, he did need to count on his friends to be there in rough times when he needed them most; earlier, he had felt like that was being drained from him, like the will to find Alcorin was being sucked out from his being when he heard that his friends didn't believe him right away.  
But looking back at what they had chosen to do, it was reasonable - he wanted it to be over just as much as they did.  
"Yeah, I guess.." Zyro said softly, a visible smile making it's way onto his lips of which Shinobu was both happy and relieved to see after the seemingly long day they had all had.  
"Come on, let's head back.." The Salamander Blader suggested, but which Zyro just simply agreed too, "I dunno where Ren and the others are, but I'm sure they're figuring out something with what they're gonna do."  
With that, both Zyro and Shinobu left the Bey Park, and through their walk back to the B-Pit neither of them said much.  
The tear-tracks on Zyro's face slowly faded away and melted into his skin tone, his eyes still a bit red though better than they were before.  
However, it didn't stop the massive headache that he got from a long day of almost having several emotional breakdowns.  
The sun was visibly setting in the sky now, a dark blue off in the distance that was met with rays of gold, orange, and pink that bled into each other as the 2 of them crossed the street to the opposite side of where the B-Pit was on the corner.  
"So you actually believe me?" Zyro said, his tone making him sound a bit on the insecure side of which he probably was right now, "Like, you're not saying that just to make me feel better, are you?"

"No, Zyro, I'm not." Shinobu answered, trying to find the best way he could to ensure the other blader that he wasn't lying to him, "We had our doubts earlier, but we believe you now.. You're not the only one that wants to take him down for everything he's done."  
The two of them both entered the B-Pit, and it didn't take a few moments before Maru came running at lightning speed and wrapped her arms around Zyro's waist in a hug, seeing as how she was much shorter than him at her age.  
Zyro staggered back slightly but caught himself, startled by the sudden embrace that he got from Maru that neither had noticed had even been in the entrance way.  
"Whoa, okay.." Zyro said hurriedly out of sheer surprise, unsure of how to react at the moment as Maru refused to let go for several moments.  
Zyro glanced up and met eyes with Madoka, who smiled awkwardly while Benkei stood with her, accompanied by Kite, Eight, Ren, and even Kira of who did not exactly look pleased to be there.  
Though it appeared that none of them were arguing with him, so it seemed to be alright save for the look that he and Shinobu exchanged for a brief moment. It took about a minute before Maru finally let go of Zyro, stepping back a few steps and smiling with an apologetic look.

"S-sorry.." She apologized sheepishly with a blush of embarrassment on her cheeks, "I was worried about you.." Zyro looked at her for a moment before a small smile crossed his face, an apologetic look crossing his features from the way that he had been acting earlier; it wasn't really anything to feel guilty about, but at this moment his emotions just decided to do whatever they wanted.  
"I'm fine, don't worry.." The Fire Blader said apologetically, which Maru could only return with a smile that showed immediate forgiveness.  
"We we're wondering where you went in the first place.." Madoka began, "Shinobu was the one who went looking for you while the rest of us tried to decide what to do with our lives now... But we believe you."  
Sky blue eyes looked up towards the shop owner, of who stood there with his friends of who all (save for Kira) nodded with hopeful looks on their faces towards their friend - hope for what?  
There wasn't anything to hope for in a world as cruel as the one they had been created on.  
"Sorry about doubting you earlier, Zyro." Kite said as he pushed his glasses up on his nose, the lens' catching the light for a moment before the glare disappeared, "We, uh.. We we're a bit ignorant before.."  
Kira rolled his one eye, of which nobody noticed since they didn't tend to keep an eye on him that much anymore.

"It's fine, honest.." Zyro said with a shrug, not bothering on worrying about that anymore since he had been able to cry it out a bit to Shinobu of which he trusted his friend wouldn't bring up - then again, why did anybody trust anybody?

Wait, what?...

"W-what we're mainly trying to say is..." Madoka began, trying to find the words as it now seemed incredibly awkward talking to Zyro after what had happened earlier at the WBBA building, "We're with you all the way on this.. Tsubasa postponed the tournament even longer so that we have time to begin looking for wherever Alcorin could be.. We're supposed to be devising a plan to do that tomorrow. Really, it kind of depends on you, so... You're call."  
The silence that continuously settled between them for a few moments at a time felt empty, awkward, like a gap had been formed between them all in a very short amount of time. Maybe that had happened, but that didn't mean that they weren't able to work together anymore.  
"Yeah, okay.." Zyro agreed, "If it makes taking him down, I'm all for it."  
The rest of them were happy to hear that from him, seeing the blader that they knew through the tear-stained wall of emotions that had almost been visible around him.  
Even so, it didn't help the weight of the air in the room nearly being torture with how heavy it was, and they were all able to feel it.  
"So is there a specific time for this?" Kira asked, a hand on his hip as he glanced up towards Madoka of who returned his gaze, "Because none of you really tell me anything.. Or are we all just showing up at random?"  
Madoka raised an eyebrow before an awkward smile crossed her face, while the rest of them glanced at each other.  
"Well, definitely in the afternoon..." The brunette said unhelpfully, of which Kira didn't reply too.  
"What are even doing here, Kira?" Shinobu questioned, a scowl on his face towards the Bahamoote Blader, "I don't think any of us would go running to you to give an invitation."

"Yeah, nobody but Zyro.." Kira said plainly. Most eyes immediately went to Zyro, of who looked away slightly.  
"I found him, really, but I was the first one he told.." Kira went on, all eyes once again landing on the pastel-haired boy that they had never been to big on, "What?.. At least I'm not the one who emotionally broke him..."  
Shinobu seemed about to reply before Ren butted in on the mainly one-sided conversation.  
"I don't think we should start an argument right now..." The blond suggested warily, "Besides... We can all agree on the same thing, right?"  
The night went on with much bickering, mainly with Kira before the rest of them retired for the night and left the B-Pit for their own respectful residences.  
By around 8:30, nobody was in the B-Pit except for Madoka, Zyro, and Maru, of who all didn't really say much to each other from the slight awkwardness that still remained between them all.  
Zyro went to bed early that night with his head aching, his eyes still stinging from the tears that he had kept in and cried and wiped away.  
His tired soul sighed out of relief as he lay down in his bed with his night light on, laying on his side and staring at the wall he was facing with fear of nightmares.

It was only then did he realize just how much everything in his body hurt; his legs, his arms, his head, his eyes, his chest, his heart... Everything, all attacked mercilessly by the madness that was Alcorin's soul, the soul that still remained in the world all because of what they had done and what they had failed to do with great shame in themselves and even in each other.  
He - no, they - were going to find him.  
They were going to find him, wherever he was, and they were going to take him down once and for all - at first, Zyro had thought he he was going to do because of what he did to Gingka, like what Tsubasa had said.  
But at that moment his heart had spoken more than his head had, because it wasn't only them that mattered anymore, they weren't just going to be fighting an isolated battle in the comforts of the city where they hadn't had to flee from; Alcorin was out there now that he had done what he had come to do, and whatever he could do to the world was a thought that would forever remain in Zyro's mind.  
It would be best to get some sleep, seeing as how would likely have a long day tomorrow with what Madoka had vaguely described to him.  
He hadn't been able to say much once he had returned to the B-Pit, from the heaviness that lie in his heart from what had happened earlier that day, gnawing away at him endlessly; things should never have turned out this way.  
But through Alcorin's sick and cruel intentions that he had brought upon them, they had...

* * *

It was the early afternoon the next day when all of had gathered at the WBBA building in Tsubasa's office just as planned, the silvernette seemingly waiting for them as they all entered one by one.  
Madoka, Maru, and Zyro were among the first to arrive, and then there was Ren, Shinobu, and Benkei then Kite and Eight who were followed by Kira, who evidently still felt the slightest bit uncomfortable being in the place that he had once been the mortal enemy of.  
Sakyo and Takanosuke weren't there, though it was common of those two to just stray on their own path stubbornly - either way, Takanosuke was the one that mostly followed Sakyo around like a lost puppy without much to say for himself on the subject of much.  
"Okay, so are we expecting anyone else, or can we get started?" Tsubasa asked, standing up from his seat while all the others either sat down somewhere or simply stood around in the eagerness to listen as what the plan would be.  
"I think we're good." Madoka answered, of which Tsubasa simply nodded to before pressing a button on his desk that brought up a map of all of Japan from behind him on a screen, all eyes turning their attention towards the map of their homeland.  
Tsubasa, with his hand on something on his desk, zoomed in on the map of Japan to the area of their city and the places located all around it.

"Now, I'm no expert at mapping, I'll give you that..." Tsubasa began as he began mapping out several things, "Now, obviously Metal Bey City is here..." The map zoomed in a bit, something circling around the area that was visible on the map from the satellite and titled 'Metal Bey City', which was located almost exactly in between the cities of Hokota and Hitachinaka beside the North Pacific Ocean, "It's obvious that Alcorin wouldn't be able to get east, so suggesting that he's traveling on foot he can only go in the directions of North, South, and West of us.. So we should very well be heading in one of those directions, but we do need to decipher which. The best we could probably do is go to other cities and towns and ask around if they know anything; know where he comes from, if they've seen him at all, basically anything we can get."

"The fact that he apparently shape-shifts isn't really going to help much.." Kira pointed out, Tsubasa's golden-brown eyes turning to him for a moment as he spoke, "At this point he could very well look like anybody, but if he still looks Hagane than I guess that counts for something."  
At this statement, Maru thought for a moment before looking up towards Tsubasa with her lavender eyes.  
"He teleports, too..." She said, glancing down at the hands in her lap as she sat on one of the few chairs in the office, "So he might not even _be_ in Japan for all we know.."

"Well, assuming that he is..." Madoka began, tapping a finger on her chin before looking towards Tsubasa as well, "Where would we even start looking? He could be anywhere."  
In response, Tsubasa looked back to the screen behind him and zoomed out the map to show them more of Japan, though still in the general sight of Metal Bey City that wasn't too hard to see from the map.  
"Well, I'm not so sure myself... But if he puts up the whole facade with being Gingka, he might go more inland than anything else.. My suggestion is that we head to the city of Mito first since it's closest."  
Kite raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, glancing at the map and pushing his glasses up.  
"So basically, we're going cross country with this?" Tsubasa shrugged with a small nod at the question.  
"Kind of, yeah.." He answered, "We obviously won't be able to go through all of Japan, but if we're going to find him, we at least need a basic idea of what we're doing.."

"What are you gonna be doing?" Ren asked, "Since the rest of us are gonna be hunting him down, you'll have to stay here anyway, right?" Tsubasa looked at her and nodded slightly.  
"Yeah, I will." The silverette answered, "However, I will get the WBBA searching for anything of help as well."

"Okay, so we're heading to Mito first?" Madoka questioned, examing the map with her turquoise eyes, "Where do we head from there?"

"That mainly depends on all of you.." Tsubasa said, his eyes going back to the screen they all had their eyes on, "Both Hitachinaka and Kasama aren't too far from Mito, even though it'll be one hell of a hike. I'll be sure to give you a map so you don't have to worry about getting lost. All I know is that it's definitely not going to be easy to try and find Alcorin."  
Zyro, who was sitting own in one of the several chairs, looked down at the floor for a moment, thinking about how everything had just decided to escalate all too quickly in such a short amount of time.  
To think... Early yesterday he had been bidding farewells to Gingka of who had said he was leaving Metal Bey City, then he had suddenly found out that Alcorin had posing as him for the entire week since he had 'woken up' before he had a panic attack once "Gingka" had disappeared; after that he had run to the WBBA building and told his friends everything, then had run off again and cried to Shinobu before they had all decided to work together to find Alcorin turned Gingka.  
Honestly, things had never been this surreal back in his hometown, or probably anywhere else for that matter - but maybe that just came with this city being the Beyblade Capital, or maybe it was all just really bad luck and coincidences.  
Zyro looked from the ground back up to the Director and the map of Japan behind him, all of it looking as if they may have finally gotten their bearings together with what they were doing.  
"I'll send some of the workers of the WBBA to a lot of far-off cities, like Tokyo." Tsubasa stated, "And Niigata, mainly for profiling reasons. If we find anything, I'll be sure to contact and tell you."

"So the rest of us are gonna head more inland, and look for him, right?" Benkei questioned, of which Tsubasa nodded to with a 'yes'.  
"That's the basics we have of it." The silverette answered, "Now all of you should definitely go and pack whatever you need.. From what Zyro's mentioned, I think the sooner we get on it, the better."  
Tsubasa then closed out the map was basically code for 'you're allowed to leave', of which most of them would thankfully abide by.  
Everyone except for Madoka, Maru, and Tsubasa left the office, all deciding to abide by the Director's advice to head back to wherever they lived and pack whatever they would need for the mission they were about to embark on.  
"You okay, Zyro?" Ren asked, coming up beside her friend of who had been walking with Shinobu, "You never said anything the entire time we were in there."  
Zyro's blue eyes - no longer bloodshot like they had been yesterday - looked over towards his blond friend, and simply gave her one of his smiles that she could tell was at least half-genuine.  
"Yeah, I'm okay.." The Fire Blader answered, "Way better than yesterday, anyway." Ren smiled in return at that.  
"That's good to hear." She responded, "It's weird to think how hectic everything has been lately.."

"You mean with a shape-shifting psychopath that isn't even human aiming to ruin our lives?" Shinobu questioned, one eyebrow raised as he looked over at Ren, "Yeah, I'd say that's pretty crazy."  
Ren rolled her eyes in response, looking like she was going to say something clever back to him though choosing the wiser path and not saying a word.  
"So..." Shinobu began, a somewhat awkward tone in his voice as his green eyes shifted over to Zyro, "You ready to go after him?"  
Zyro abruptly stopped walking at the question that he was asked, Shinobu and Ren following in suite with confused and concerned looks on their faces.  
Zyro let out a soft breath almost in the form of a sigh, glancing down towards the ground with a grave look on his face and not paying his friend's concerned looks any mind.  
"I'll be honest..." He said, looking up with a determined look in his eyes that once more burned with the intensity that they only knew as the Blader of Fire, "I never really was, I guess.."  
With that, the 3 friends continued down the hall and entered once of the several elevators on that floor, heading down to the first floor to prepare for the journey that they were all about to embark on.  
Though Ren and Shinobu had not said a word after Zyro's answer, they agreed with him more than anything - none of them had ever asked for this.  
Especially not the man that they had failed to save.


	5. Chapter 4 - Set Things Right

Chapter 4 - Set Things Right

* * *

Zyro and the others had gone and done exactly what Tsubasa had told them to do - pack whatever they needed for the journey that they were about to embark on, the one that they had somewhat mapped out, or at least where to start.  
There was no telling how long they were going to be gone for, or what they were going to have to face while they were gone and searching for the psychopath that they had failed to get rid of before.  
They had all met at the B-Pit with lack of knowledge of where else they could go and simply waited in the lobby, Kite and Eight being among the first to arrive while Zyro had already been there anyway.  
Kira showed up not to long after Madoka and Maru returned, claiming that he didn't need much so he didn't bother bringing anything - none of them bothered to question why, seeing as how that always lead to sass from Kira that was just his personality and eventually something back from Shinobu (who wasn't there yet) before it became a small argument.  
Shinobu soon arrived as well, who was soon followed by Benkei as Madoka and Maru were getting ready upstairs.  
Those of them that did pack anything had simple backpacks that wouldn't weigh them down too much, while a couple of them - like Kira - seemed to be bringing nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"So I take it we're actually gonna do this?" Ren asked, mainly to break the silence that was between them all in the lobby of the B-Pit.  
"Certainly looks and sounds like it.." Kira said plainly, not even sparing the blond a glance as he looked at his nails.  
"The Director seemed pretty bent on it, too.." Shinobu pointed out, "But I guess it makes sense, since Gingka was his friend..."

"Yeah, Madoka too.." Benkei said, joining in on the conversation, "They were both closer to 'im than I was, of course." Eight looked up towards the purple-haired man with curiosity in his deep green eyes.  
"Weren't you closer to Kyoya?" He asked, taking in account what Maru had said several times.  
"Yup!" Benkei answered with a grin, that caused most of them to smile in response - though Kira simply rolled his eyes as he leaned against the wall solemnly.  
It wasn't long before they heard footsteps quickly coming down the stairs, Maru being the first to appear with the backpack that she had used when she went to the Mist Mountain Shrine on her back.  
"Ready!" She said, saluting in that cute way of hers which plainly showed the newly acquired bracelet on her wrist that none of them had ever seen before.  
"Hey, what's that?" Ren asked out of curiosity as she eyed the bracelet that was around Maru's wrist. The pinkette looked at her with confusion for a moment before looking to where her eyes were planted, and then brightened up a bit once she realized what she was talking about.

"Oh, this?" She asked, lifting up her wrist a bit before answering her, "Tsubasa gave it too me. It's a type of thing we can use to stay in contact with him."  
Zyro raised his eyebrow, looking at girl with interest despite his mostly solemn expression that he'd had for most of the time they'd all been there.  
"Is it supposed to have, like, those holographic screens or something, like in the movies?" He asked, which Shinobu, Kite, and Eight sweat-dropped too, before came Maru's answer.  
"Actually, it does..." She said, scratching her cheek a bit.  
Everyone, even Kira, looked at her with wide-eyed shock and interest, which Maru noticed before continuing.  
"He said it was something that he and a few people from Tokyo were working on for a couple of months." Maru continued, looking down at the silver bracelet around her wrist, "Apparently it's connection relies on some sort of satellite, so we can kind of talk to Tsubasa whenever... And it has a map, too."

"Wow..." Kite lamented, "That's pretty high tech.. Surprising what people come up with now a days." Before anyone could say anything else, one more pair of footsteps came down the stairs, of which soon revealed themselves to be Madoka with a backpack slung over her shoulder as well.  
"Well, are all of you ready?" She asked, stopping at the foot of the stairs and looking down at Maru before back up at them all. Necessarily, she had changed her outfit for the most part.  
Despite still keeping her regular jacket and boots on, she had put a beige, long-sleeved shirt and jeans with a brown belt; likely because she knew that they were all going to be traveling a bit and going around in her regular outfit likely wouldn't be as comfortable was what she currently had on.  
"We've been ready for the past 10 minutes.." Kira said with a soft sigh in his voice, pushing himself up off the wall as it seemed they were now aiming to leave.  
"Shut up, Kira.." Shinobu mumbled in irritation at the mere presence of the ex-DNA blader.  
"I'm just saying.." Kira replied back quietly with sass as they all got their bearings together, Madoka grabbing her keys off the shelf so that she could lock up for their long absence.  
"We all have everything we need, right?" The brunette asked as she went to lock the door, all of them standing on the corner of the street just outside the B-Pit while the streets buzzed with traffic and what-not.  
"Do any of us even know the way to Mito?" Benkei questioned, the thought suddenly coming to mind as he realized how he had never been North of Metal Bey City let alone the city they were heading to first.

"I have a map in this thing." Maru suggested, lifting her wrist and gesturing to the bracelet that Tsubasa had given her.  
Before anything else, the pinkette brought her wrist down and a bit and pressed something on what appeared to be the top of it, a small point that somewhat resembled the end of a Laser Pointer, glowing a bright blue before a thin light shot up and brought up a holographic screen, much to everyone's surprise.  
"You weren't kidding..." Eight commented in awe as they all watched Maru with interest, watching as a map appeared on the screen while her fingers narrowly hovered above the screen that looked relatively solid, narrowing to down close enough for her to get a close enough birds-eye-view to their route.  
"Well, it's a long ways away, but I think we can make it there by tomorrow or something.." Maru explained, observing the map that she had pulled up in front of her, "Basically, just follow the main road heading North out of the city, which is... That way!"  
With her opposite had did Maru point one down the street, having the map in her bracelet at her disposal for directions just in case - considering the connection it had to a satellite, it was unlikely to quit out on her.  
"Well, I say we get going!" Ren said with confidence.  
"That's what were here to do." Zyro joined in, a small smile on his face. All of them were able to agree with the two, setting off on their journey that would likely have much more in store for them than they could ever begin to imagine.  
But all that was on their minds now was finding Alcorin and taking him down for good, wherever he was - yet somehow, Zyro just had this tingling feeling the back of his head that told him there was something else in store with the unexpected...

* * *

Tsubasa, knowing that Zyro, Madoka, and the others were likely on their way out of the city, had already begun undergoing the process of gathering any information or profiling that they could get from other cities, having already spoken to a couple of the workers of the WBBA who would be heading to Niigata, and Sendai.  
He had already sent those 5 on their separate ways to separate cities that Zyro and the others likely wouldn't be coming across, though he still had a few others - one of them being Tokyo.  
"You wanted to see me, Director?" Sichiro asked as he came up beside the silvernette, who was walking down one of the many hallways of the building.  
Glancing beside him to assure that it was who he thought it was, Tsubasa nodded his head and looked forward.  
"Yes." He answered, "I have a mission for you, Sichiro. I know it may seem a bit sudden, but it's important right now."

"No worries, Director." Sichiro assured as they walked beside each other, brushing a strand of his long black hair out of his face, "I take it it has something to do with postponing the tournament for longer?" Looking over at him, Tsubasa shrugged a bit with a small nod that almost seemed awkward.  
"Kind of.." He said awkwardly, which simply earned a small smile from Sichiro, "Anyway.. I'm sending you and Ayano to the one of the major WBBA corporations in Japan. I've already sent a few others to other cities for profiling, as well as getting as much information on someone as you can. Seeing as how you already knew what was going with Gingka a week ago, it's kind of related to that..."  
Sichiro hummed slightly, recalling some of what the Director had told him just the week before and how he had called off the BTF tournament for a short time until the entire matter was resolved - it was why he had to do a full scan of the city, and why they had searched everywhere within a 3 mile radius of Metal Bey as far as he knew.  
"I see..." The black-haired man lamented, before looking back to Tsubasa with his steel grey eyes, "Which one are sending us to?"

"Tokyo." Tsubasa answered simply, which made Sichiro's breath hitch in the slightest bit, "Of course, I've already told the Director of the Tokyo WBBA that you two will be there shortly for profiling and such, but I didn't tell any of the WBBA Directors what are motives for it are."  
Sichiro was rendered speechless for a few moments with his mouth hanging open a bit, but managed to get himself together before stuttering a bit on his words towards his boss.  
"Um, D-Director..." He began nervously, "A-are you sure you couldn't, uh... Find someone else to go with Ayano?.."  
Tsubasa raised an eyebrow and halted along with one of his most trusted colleagues, a slightly confused look on his face as he looked at Sichiro and noticed the paleness in his face.  
"Why do you ask?" The silverette questioned, a bit suspicious on Sichiro's sudden behavior considering how he usually was.  
"Well..." Sichiro began, adverting his eyes for a moment before looking back to the director, "Surely there are more highly skilled people here to do so rather than me, isn't there?.. I mean, me and Ayano aren't the most compatible team, considering how skilled she is with this kind of stuff." A small smile crept up Tsubasa's lips, and he placed a hand on Sichiro's shoulder with an eyebrow raised.

"You're right, there probably are more skilled people here than you..." The Director began, which caused Sichiro to hold his breath in the tension, "But you're the one that I trust the most with this. Besides, uh... Hikaru, of course, but, you know... Either way, you're the one that I trust the most with this, even if there are some others who might be better suited than you. That's why I'm sending you with Ayano, okay?"  
Sichiro bit the inside of his cheek for a moment before nodding and forcing a smile onto his face.  
"Y-yeah, right." The worker said with an apologetic look, "Sorry about that, I've just been feeling a bit down since, uh... What happened with Hikaru.."  
Tsubasa's eyes and expression softened, his smile fading a bit but going back with a look saying that he understood perfectly what Sichiro felt.  
He was the one that had know Hikaru the longest out of all of them; she had been an old friend of his as far as they all knew, so it was only reasonable that he was still likely hurting from that was well as it wasn't just the workers of the WBBA who had known and worked with her for a long time.  
"Don't worry about it.." Tsubasa said with an understanding tone in his voice, "I get it. She was a good friend of mine too. So I hope you won't let me down on this."  
Sichiro smiled, and simply nodded his head.  
"I'll do my best, Director." He answered, and Tsubasa simply nodded before patting his shoulder and heading off down the hall.

Watching him as he walked away, Sichiro stood there, the smile fading from his face as his heart beat rapidly in his chest.  
He let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, staring down towards the floor with wide eyes and a pale face, a chill running through him as he once more registered what Tsubasa had said to him, what the Director had asked him to do, where he had asked him to go.

Tokyo... Of all the places the Director could send him, it _had_ to be Tokyo.

Sichiro sighed heavily, standing there in the hallway alone while nervously tapping his foot on the floor and glancing up towards the ceiling.  
"This isn't gonna end well..." He lamented, remembering back into his past long before any of this had begun, long before Zyro Kurogane had ever come to Metal Bey City, years back into when he had first started his career anywhere.  
Well, maybe it was a good thing that the Director hadn't looked into his past when he had first began with his profiling - maybe some of the others had, but not Tsubasa by the looks of it.  
Now that he was going back, there was no way that his history was not going to catch up with him...

* * *

The ex-DNA bladers, deciding to get out the confines of their current 'living' quarters for once, all stood atop of one of the buildings in Metal Bey.  
They all did have to admit that the view was definitely nice, but the thing that troubled most of their minds was the fact that Kira was the only one that wasn't with them.  
Genjuro, who seemed to the only one who wasn't really complaining (besides Captain Arrow), mainly watched in irritation as the others bickered on and on between each other and out loud.

"I _still_ can't believe master Kira would do something like that!" Baihu whined, falling back on the landing he was sitting on and throwing his hands up in the air, "I thought we were supposed to be against Zyro and the others, not _with_ them!" Spike grunted, leaning against the same thing that Baihu was sitting on.  
"Considering Kira's actions, he obviously doesn't think so.." The scarred blader said bitterly, "Probably ran off to them by now, seeing as how we haven't seen him in a few days."

"Well, he must've had a good and honorable reason for it!" Captain Arrow suggested, sitting on the edge of the building with apparently no fear of falling off, "After all, master Kira doesn't really like anyone all that much, so there _must_ have been a good reason for why he would help them in whatever they were doing."  
Spike glanced over towards the dark-haired blader, an irritated look on his face towards the way that he always spoke in such a melodramatic way.  
"Shut up, Arrow.." The scarred blader said simply, which didn't get a reply as the other blader simply looked out to admire the view.  
"Master Kira would never turn his back on us." Yoshio claimed, staring out over the city as well as he simply stood around on the rooftop.  
Genjuro hummed softly, chewing his dandelion stem as he finally opened his blue eyes from sitting on one the vents atop the building they stood on, looking towards them all with a rather calm look on his face.  
"Might as well leave him to it." The dirty-blond said dismissively, "There's no sense in stopping him, with how he is."  
These words caused Baihu to shoot up from the position he had originally been in, picking himself up off the landing he had been laying on and staring at Genjuro.  
"How are _you_ so okay with this?!" The raven exclaimed out of surprise at Genjuro's rather shocking reaction towards all of this, "You were the one that seemed the most angry about it at first!"

"Well, I managed to talk to him and found out his reasoning." Genjuro retorted, his arms and legs crossed as he sat on the vent that was relatively cold considering the metal was out on the rooftop for so long, "Either way, it's not like we can stay mad at him forever... You know how he gets when we whine a lot."  
Captain Arrow raised his non-visible eyebrows, his yellow eyes looking towards Genjuro while his legs still over the edge of the building they all sat upon, seemingly having no fear of falling off the edge and plummeting to his death with one wrong shift.  
"And what exactly were master Kira's reasons for helping out the WBBA bladers?" The dark-bluenette asked with interest, his tone more carefree from the rest of them.  
For a few moments, Genjuro remained silent, listening to the soft crunch of the stem between his shark-like teeth before answering with his eyes closed.  
"Kurogane saved his life, it's as simple as that.." Genjuro said irritably, "I guess Kira's that guy that likes returning favors or something." Spike raised an eyebrow, looking at Genjuro questionably.  
"Wow, I didn't think he had it in him.." The brunette said, yet not with a very complimentary tone.  
"Repaying a life dept is not an easy thing to do." Captain Arrow lamented, gazing up towards the sky with his yellow eyes, "I find it quite noble that master Kira would think to repay someone for saving his life, especially to someone that he doesn't even like."  
Spike rolled his eyes at the masked blader. It was typical only for Captain Arrow to spew out that type of artsy wording with how he was.  
"So where is master Kira, then?" Yoshio asked, looking over at Genjuro as they knew he was the one that had most of the answers. All Genjuro did was simply shrug and continue chewing on his dandelion stem.  
"I dunno..." He answered unhelpfully, "Last I saw him, I just basically said to do whatever he wants, since he always seems to do that... I don't really care whether he helps Kurogane with whatever or not."

"Yeah, I guess..." Baihu admitted, slumping over slightly as he changed his sitting position a bit, "But where would he be, right now?" Spike grunted again, shrugging his shoulders and continuing to lean against the wall.  
"Not really our thing to ask, knowing master Kira.." The scarred blader stated, huffing out through his nose, "Might as well let him do whatever.."  
All Genjuro did was hum softly before looking out over the city and admiring the view that it had to offer. Granted with the rather strong heat that they were exposed to since it was suffer, and the fact that Captain Arrow could fall over the edge if he wasn't careful, it was rather nice.  
The dirty-blond sighed silently, ceasing his action in chewing the dandelion stem for a moment as his eyes went down towards the ground. Looks like Kira had decided to bail on them after all... Then again, it wasn't like it really mattered - Captain Arrow was right when he said that repaying a life dept was not an easy task, and Genjuro had said it to Kira himself.  
Well, as long as it was in Kira's best interest, it may as well be fine; though he didn't know him too well, he had always somehow seemed to be the one who understood Kira the best...

* * *

Zyro and the others had already long left the city when they heard and saw WBBA helicopters overhead, all of them heading in different directions and likely well past the destination that they were heading to.  
All of them were roughly a mile away from Metal Bey City, sticking mainly to the forest while still being sure to follow the main road on Maru's map as they all headed towards Mito.  
They stopped as they watched one helicopter fly overhead, the rumbling it made becoming loud as it drew so close before slowly growing quieter as it headed away from them and likely farther North than where they were headed, the sound of the blades rotating still ringing in their ears.

"You think that's Tsubasa?" Ren asked out of curiosity as they all watched the chopper disappearing into the distance, slowly vanishing from their sight.  
"Must be." Madoka replied, "He did say he was going to send a few people to other cities for some profiling or something, so I don't doubt it. If not us, maybe he'll be able to find something."  
Shinobu crossed his arms, gazing up at the sky as they all watched the continuously vanishing helicopter heading off into the distance, the sound of the blades rotating disappearing from their line of hearing as the sky slowly absorbed the object that may as well been as tiny as an ant from where they were standing.  
"It's kind weird to think how crazy this is all gotten.." The light-haired blader lamented, thinking back to the very beginning from where this had all started.  
" _Kind of_?" Ren repeated, raising an eyebrow towards the Salamander blader beside her, "It's _really_ weird, if you ask me."

"Well it better, if you're facing off against the child of some sort of god from 7 years ago." Kira pointed out, which Kite rolled his eyes to as they all saw his usual attitude that never seemed to really change.  
"Even if he _is_ Nemesis' kid, like hell we're gonna let him get away with anything else.." Zyro proclaimed, which had been one of the few confident words that they had heard from him the last two days since he had figured out what had happened to Gingka and all that they had failed in.  
It was uplifting for most of them to finally see that Zyro's confidence and determination for something like this building up again, having evidently been brutally shattered by Alcorin when he had said it to his face that they had all lost the battle they had believed they won; his shattered spirit, as they had partially seen yesterday, was a rather terrifying thing that they hoped never to lay their eyes on again - even Kira, in his stubbornness, would be able to agree with that.  
Madoka's turquoise eyes made their way over to Zyro, looking at him for a moment before a soft smile crossed his face.  
"Well, if Gingka can't take him down..." She began, "Looks like we're the next best thing there is." Kira rolled his eyes and this and placed his hand on his hip, having seen the way these guys were and really not up for their little speeches.  
"So, are we going to actually look for the psychopath, or are all of you going to spend an hour standing here with your melodramatic speeches?" The pastel-haired blader asked, exchanging a bitter look with Shinobu as he knew very well that the Salamander blader didn't like him - of course, he would never ask him to after what he did to him.  
Maru, taking a bit of heed to Kira's words, opened up the map on her wrist again and shrunk it a bit so that she could she where exactly they were and how much farther they had to go; needless to say, it was definitely going to be a long trip from where they were now all the way to Mito.

"Kira's right.." The pinkette agreed, looking up towards her teacher with lavender eyes, "We have a long, long way to go if we want to make it to the city in a couple days."  
Madoka nodded at her student as the girl put the map back into the bracelet on her wrist before hoisting up her backpack that she currently had slung over her shoulder.  
"Okay." Madoka began, "Let's get going.. Hopefully we'll be able to get there sooner rather than later." All of them were able to agree with this and they continued on, taking heed with the fact that they did have a long way to go if they ever really wanted to make it to Mito.  
It appeared that Tsubasa already had his plans underway, and now they were the ones that had to set out across a small portion of Japan to look for an inhuman sociopath that could be anywhere at this point.  
"Do you think we're gonna find him?" Eight asked, looking up towards his big brother as they all trudged on, being able to hear the sounds of the traffic on the main road that they were sure to follow alongside.  
"Hopefully.." Kite answered, petting his younger brother's royal blue hair, "However, I don't even know _how_ we're gonna find him. I don't really think just searching for him is gonna do much, knowing what he is."

"Well, we can try, can't we?" Ren questioned, looking over towards the Unabara brothers of which she had overheard - of course, it was nearly impossible to not overhear anyone in the small group they were in, "After all he's done, I can't wait to give that freak a piece of my mind!"  
Both Zyro, Shinobu, and Benkei smiled at Ren's enthusiasm, which definitely made sense seeing as how Alcorin had used her as nothing more than a tool to try and get what he wanted, even though he would've likely gotten it anyway.  
"I think we can all vouch for that one." Benkei said in an uplifting tone, and it was evident that they were all trying to keep the spirit strong for all of their sakes.  
It was blatant seen with Maru that she was sort of uncomfortable with the subject of Alcorin, after what he had done to Dynamis at the Mist Mountain Shrine, but she seemed up for the idea of finally taking him down after all he had done to them.  
Zyro was the one who seemed so subdued, the most out of all of them.  
With everything they had gone through, it didn't take a genius to see that Zyro had definitely changed mental-wise; that was something that even Kira felt slightly pitiful for, but the Bahamoote blader simply brushed that off and continued walking.  
Shinobu's light green eyes looked over towards Zyro, who had already been looking passed him towards Ren so he was able to catch his gaze.

"What do you think, Zyro?" The light-haired blader asked, even though he already knew the answer as the Fire Blader had made it very clear.  
To his hidden delight, a small yet playful smirk crossed the other's face with a fiery intensity in his eyes that they had always known to be him.  
"Taking him down is probably the best idea since turkey and sandwiches!" Zyro exclaimed, which caused all of them to sweat-drop at that statement, "Besides... I don't really like the idea of him hurting anyone else.. He's done enough of that."  
Shinobu hummed softly in understanding, though still chuckled slightly at the Fire Blader's earlier statement about turkey and sandwiches. Well... They were pretty good, so he was sort of on to something with that.  
"Looks like he'll be doing okay.." Madoka muttered with a smile on her face, exchanging a glance with Maru who smiled back in agreement.  
They were all left to their journey towards Mito, of where they knew they would start looking for Alcorin and seeing if they could get any sort of information from people if they seen someone like him, or had recently seen "Gingka" around.  
All they could really do was hope that it would end in their favor...

* * *

Both Sichiro and Ayano made their way to towards the upper levels of the WBBA building in the elevator, having been told by one of their co-workers that it was time for them both to leave for Japan for the mission that the Director had given them.  
The helicopter was said to be waiting for them on one of the several landing pads, ready to take off as soon as they got there and were ready to leave, which was better now than never.  
"So we're just going to the Tokyo WBBA for profiling?" Sichiro asked, wishing to specify things as he looked over at his emerald-haired companion that would be accompanying him in this mission.  
"That's about the gist of it." Ayano answered making sure that her hair was tied back properly in a bun, "He said not to tell anyone about the recent events that have apparently occurred within Metal Bey. I can understand why he would want that, I guess... Either way, I hope this whole thing goes by fast, Tokyo's too big of a city for me."  
Sichiro simply nodded along with her words, not knowing what else to say other than to agree with his co-worker.  
"Yeah, me too..." He agreed as they continued on, the elevator going painfully slow probably just to torment him and make him think about what they were supposed to be doing and where they were going to do it.

"Have you ever been to Tokyo before?" Ayano asked out of curiosity, looking over towards her black-haired companion of who seemed to jump a bit at the question before glancing over at her.  
"Oh, uh..." Sichiro began, not sure of what exactly he should say towards Ayano and knowing that he only had a few seconds to do so - why did elevator rides have to seem so slow?  
"Um, y-yeah.." He finally asked, scratching the back of his neck as he watched the elevator slowly coming up to the top floor of where they would have to take the stairs the rest of the way to the landing pad, "A few times, when I was little... I used to live near there, actually.."  
Ayano nodded with an interested face, having never heard Sichiro ever talk about his past to anyone.  
"Well, I've been there on a number of occasions.." She said with an annoyed role of the eyes at the memory of going on so many missions there, "I've met their Director before, and he's not to bad, I guess.. A bit on the older side, but he's nice overall."

Sichiro simply nodded, biting the inside of his cheek as Ayano continued on, probably for something to do as they waited for the elevator to reach the top - it was almost there, thankfully.  
"I can't help but wonder what goes on with the WBBA over there.." The greenette lamented, looking up towards the ceiling as she quirked an eyebrow, "I mean, I've overhead that they manage a lot of things and own several places, but they seem kind of secretive.."  
Sichiro bit his lip, anxiously looking up towards the floor count - dear god, how slow did this elevator have to be?  
"Well, that's probably just because they got a Metal Bey WBBA worker in their building." Ayano laughed with a shrug, "None of the Japanese WBBA's are that connected with each as far as I know."  
Finally - _finally_ \- the door to the elevator opened, allowing them both out onto the top floor where they could faintly hear the rotating blades of the chopper up above.  
Both workers stepped out of the elevator, hearing the metal doors close behind them as they both made their way around the top floor and to the stairs that lead up to the rooftop, the sound growing louder and louder as they climbed up towards their destination.  
Outside, the helicopter stood ready for them on one of the several landing pads, the pilot waving to them as he saw both of them emerge from the depths of the WBBA building and make their way towards the helicopter, the strong winds blowing at their faces and causing them to raise their hands above them.

"You think this is gonna be easy?!" Sichiro asked, yelling over the sound of rotating blades as they both made their way to the helicopter, reaching the side of it and climbing inside of where the sound was no better.  
"Speaking from past experience, probably not!" Ayano responded as they both closed the door and strapped themselves in.  
Signals were exchanged, giving the okay that they were ready and it was time to leave.  
The pilot lifted the helicopter off the landing pad, making sure they were all a good distance above the buildings before taking off towards the Southwest as it seemed.  
The sky and mountains flew past them as they went high through the air, the city below them and slowly receding as they drew farther away from home and further towards what they knew they had to do.  
Ayano seemed to be quite accustomed to helicopter rides, seeing as how she had had to take them many times when she had things to do away from the comforts of Metal Bey City, so they had grown on her quite fondly; glancing over at Sichiro, she saw the anxious look on his face, the paleness in his skin that hadn't seemed to be there before now.  
She knew that her co-worker didn't go away from Metal Bey city that often, so maybe it was just the nervousness that came with being so high up in the air that unnerved him so much.  
Humming softly, Ayano looked away from Sichiro and gazed out the window beside him, watching the landscape pass by so fluently it seemed to transcend time.


	6. Chapter 5 - Still Here

Chapter 5 - Still Here

* * *

Takanosuke gazed out across the water as he leaned against the railing of the shoreline, the cries of the gulls filling his ears with the waves splashing against the wall echoing behind them.  
The sun reflected off the surface of the water, giving light to the depths below that were a dark and black abyss filled with nothingness and awaiting for the next casualty to fall down into the darkness where it would slowly suffocate them.  
The metal was naturally cold against his fingertips that just barely touched it from the way they were crossed, his cerulean eyes staring blankly as he remained lost in his thoughts instead of truly in the reality that he stood in.  
He knew that Sakyo was near him, but he decided to pay him no mind as his thoughts swam through his head, unable to focus on anything else except for what happened yesterday with Ren. She had explained everything to them.  
Explained that things weren't over with Alcorin, that everything they had fought for was for naught and that he was still out there somewhere, watching, waiting, walking freely with the fact in his head that he had won the battle that _they_ had fought to win.  
They had both listened to every word that Ren spoke, seeing the urgency in her face and feeling her sincerity through the way that she said her words, finished her sentences, the way her eyes darted this way and that as some sort add to a hand gesture.  
But in the end, both of them had completely turned them down and bailed on the whole idea of going after him. Well, Sakyo had been the one to make the call, and Takanosuke had simply agreed with him and said that they wanted nothing more to do with a psychopath that was descended from something that wasn't remotely human.

Of course, he could imagine how the rest of them were taking it - he hadn't really know Gingka himself, but he was able to tell that the redhead had meant something to them; he was a legend, a hero that had saved them all from a supposedly inevitable fate that the God of Destruction had lain out before them.  
It was terrible to think that everything that they had all fought for was for nothing in the end, that they had all been made fools of by the very man they had thought they destroyed for good.  
He and Sakyo had barely even known about Alcorin and they had already been absolutely done with his carefree attitude that came from insanity; how the others were, having dealt with it for a week already, was probably an entirely different story.  
They had likely already gone after him, had already split town in hopes that they would find him somewhere, wherever he was.  
Out of the two of them, Takanosuke was the one who regretted bailing on them the most - he could understand why Sakyo wouldn't want anything else to do with him, but Zyro and the others _were_ their teammates in a tournament that had been postponed for a very long time now; two weeks, to be more accurate.  
It was probably too late by now to have second thoughts, but Takanosuke couldn't help but wonder if he had gone against Sakyo's word and suggested that they help out, that they help take down the psychopath that killed the man who was a hero and dear friend to the rest of their teammates, as well as those of the WBBA.  
But now they were left here, with nothing more to do but to wait for the tournament to start back up, if it was even going to do so now that the others were probably going to go after the deity that they likely loathed more than anything.  
But, as they both stood and sort of relaxed by the waterline, Takanosuke couldn't help but have the regrets weighing him down that they weren't there to help.

"Takanosuke." Said blonde jumped as he heard his name being called, jumping out through the window of his thoughts and landing right back into reality that stood around him with no holes or gaps in its' blanket of wholeness.  
Takanosuke turned slightly, looking towards the source of the voice that had spoken his name and predictably finding himself staring into the crimson red eyes of Sakyo, who stood there watching him as if he had been doing it for hours on end, even though they both hadn't been there for very long.  
"Oh, uh, Sakyo.." Takanosuke said, stumbling on his words as he failed to meet the eyes of the one that he most considered a friend, "Uh.. How long were you there?.. Um... Sorry.."  
Sakyo raised an eyebrow as he saw Takanosuke's behavior, noticing how distant he seemed, the slight anxiety in his voice laced with guilt or regret.  
"What's on your mind?" He asked gruffly, causing Takanosuke to glance up at him a bit with his wide cerulean eyes, the redhead watching him carefully as he saw him scratch the back of his neck and turn away a bit.  
"N-nothing much, just..." The blonde began, sighing softly as he troubled himself with what exactly he was supposed to say now that all words had been said, "Well, uh... About yesterday.. With, uh, Ren, I guess..."

"What about it?" Sakyo questioned, his voice and face stern but still patient nonetheless with the only person that really considered a friend.  
"I just, well.." Takanosuke seemed hesitant to say anything, unsure of how to start explaining or what he should say - of course, he wasn't to much of a fast thinker with words, even if his time in the Cyclone Stadium could say otherwise, "I.. Just kind of feel like we shouldn't have said no to her, I guess... I mean, well, they're our teammates and stuff, I so I think we should've helped... But.."  
Sakyo said nothing, looking at his friend with the eye that wasn't covered by his hair, waiting patiently for him to continue with the cold look that he always had on his face, as if it had permanently frozen there somehow.  
Of course, everyone he knew had grown used to it, and nobody ever questioned why he always seemed so hardened - simply because he was.  
"N-nevermind..." Takanosuke sighed, shaking his head as his shoulders slumped, "It doesn't matter... I was just thinking that we should've..." The blonde's voice trailed off and he shook his head, not bothering to make eye contact with Sakyo as he knew that there was never any sense in arguing with him.  
"What do you think?" Sakyo asked, seeming to urge him into continuing what he was going to say. Cerulean eyes glanced up towards red ones, seeming to think about whether or not he should say anything or not before finally giving in and looking up towards his friend.

"I just..." He began once more, trying not to lose his wit, "I think that we should've helped them out.. We did the first time, I guess, so... Like, the guy _was_ crazy, so I get why you wouldn't want to go after someone like him. But Zyro and the others are our teammates, aren't they?"  
Sakyo looked at him for a moment, seeming to study his expression as well as listen carefully to his voice and his words, as if testing something.  
The Dragoon Blader hummed softly for a moment, before simply nodding his head and looking away slightly.  
"So you're thinking we should go after him ourselves?" Sakyo asked suddenly, catching Takanosuke off guard with the question that he hadn't expected Sakyo to ask - but from the look in his eyes, it was evident that he was being serious.  
"Well, uh..." The blond began, scratching the small of his neck, "Kind of... I mean, from what Ren was saying it sounds like they would've probably left already, but... I was kind of thinking about it.."  
Sakyo turned his head more towards his friend, one eyebrow raised as he looked him dead in the eye, crimson meeting cerulean and making it as if nothing else existed but the two of them as they prepared to make what would probably be the biggest decision of their lives.

"Well?" Sakyo questioned, "Should we go look for him?"...

* * *

Director Hideyoshi of the Tokyo WBBA pushed his glasses up on his nose as he gazed out the windows in the hallways of the building, admiring the view that he was given even though they didn't surpass some of the buildings, unlike the Metal Bey City WBBA building did, from what he had heard of it.  
He had never been to any of the other WBBAs in Japan, as none of them were relatively connected with each other and they all tended to like their private space - if anyone ever went over to another WBBA headquarters, it was one of the workers and assistants of the Directors, but never them themselves.  
They spoke to each other, corresponded through video and message, but meeting face to face was not something that they relatively agreed to, unless on very important terms.  
He had been told earlier that day that a couple of the WBBA workers, named Ayano Kagome and Sichiro Yamauchi, would be coming to Tokyo for some profiling and a few other business matters, courtesy of the Director of the Metal Bey City WBBA, Tsubasa Otori.  
The Director himself had messaged him through the screen in his office, both of them taking their time in establishing what would be happening and who Tsubasa was sending, before Hideyoshi had agreed to the terms and said he would await their arrival.  
Whenever that would be, he had no idea, but he made sure that several people that worked under his order would keep a lookout for one of the other city's helicopters.  
Surely with the two of them in Tokyo, as he knew Ayano had been several times, things were bound to be interesting.  
Especially since she was being accompanied by someone other than just herself...

"Director." Spoke a hardened, female voice from behind him, causing the man to slowly turn around as he recognized the voice well as one of his closest assistants.  
"Ah, Naomi.." The man greeted with a welcoming smile, his hands behind his back as he turned to face his assistant, "It's good to see you.. I suggest you have something for me?" Naomi nodded, her hard features never changing as she flipped through a few papers on the clipboard that she was holding.  
"Two Metal Bey WBBA workers are being sent here for profiling?" The brunette questioned, glancing up at him with her dull green eyes that seemed so cold.  
"Yes, that is correct." Hideyoshi answered, adjusting his glasses on his nose slightly.  
"Including all of our staff?" Naomi clarified, "Simple medical and DNA records, with short background checks?" Hideyoshi hummed in a way that said 'yes', knowing full well what Naomi was getting at with her suspicions of these other WBBA workers. Almost as expected, the assistant raised an eyebrow and set the papers back down, smoothing them out as she held her clipboard to her.  
"They obviously will not be profiling _all_ of our staff.." Hideyoshi clarified for his assistant, "Especially not those in the AETL.. Nobody knows what goes on in there, and I prefer to keep it that way, Naomi."

"As do the rest of us, Director." Naomi said in agreement, her expression still tight and hardened as the Director nodded and chuckled deeply.  
"Well, it won't matter.." The man said in an almost carefree tone, "Neither of them will ever know the difference.. Either way..." His dark-eyed gaze went out towards the window again, looking towards the sky and watching as the clouds gently rolled over the sun, "It'll be quite nice to see him again."  
With that, Hideyoshi simply nodded towards his assistant, assuring Naomi that she was free to go. All she did was oblige and stalk down the long hallway towards her other duties...

* * *

Time passed on through the day as Zyro, Madoka, and the others all made their way through the forest, being sure to stay relatively close to main road as to not lose themselves in the wilderness that was around them, and using Maru's map for help and guidance in their journey towards Mito.  
However long they had been walking for was unknown, but the setting sun almost touching the peak of one of the tallest mountains they could see told them that it was roughly around or past dinner time; Maru soon confirmed that it was around 6:30, since her bracelet also apparently doubled as a watch of some sort.  
They had been going on for hours, and were now about over 10 miles away from Metal Bey City, which was surprising as it seemed they hadn't walked all that much.  
Though it now definitely seemed reasonable as most of them were getting tired, especially Maru and Eight who probably weren't used to this much walking at their ages; Zyro was beginning to get aches in his legs as well, though he wasn't entirely sure it was from exhaustion of walking...

Kira was the one who seemed to have the longest endurance, closely followed by both Madoka and Benkei who had plenty of time for long hikes when they were trying to the save the world and training for any upcoming tournaments.  
Even so, those three were being to grow a bit tired as well, though Kira was the one who refused to show it at all.  
"How long have we been walking for?" Ren asked as they continued on, her ankles and calves aching as they continued on, the aches very slowly intensifying and nearly going numb as they continued on, eyeing the golden rays that just danced upon the color-changing sky.  
Maru, yawning a bit, opened the map on her bracelet once more, checking both the time and where they were by now.  
"A few hours.." The pinkette answered, "We're still a long ways away from Mito, but closer than we were before.." Kira rolled his eyes at this 'new' information that they were given, though he said nothing as he just silently judged a few of them inside his head.  
"You think we should settle down for the night?" Madoka questioned, looking at the rest of them and coming to a halt of which they all followed suite in, some of them sighing in relief to finally stop after walking for so long.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired.." Benkei said, wiping his forehead as he looked up towards the sky, as if it were about to rain.  
"I say amen.." Shinobu agreed, slouching a bit and sighing from exhaustion.  
Soon, all of them were able to agree to the idea of setting up camp for the night, even while Kira said nothing and simply went along with what the rest of them had decided to do.  
As they managed to get a small fire going and set up a small camp that would be nothing but dust by morning, it got considerably darker as the sun began to disappear behind the mountains, the woods darkening around them and making them mostly circle around the fire for both light and warmth in the darkness that would soon surround them entirely.  
Madoka and Maru both sat together near the fire, the pinkette huddling close to her teacher as the cold nipped at the edges of her skin, Shinobu leaned against a rather large rock that just happened to be laying around in the area they decided to use, Ren was simply using her backpack as a pillow as she lay on her side, still awake as she rested up and stared into the flames.  
Benkei was simply sitting with his bag beside him, which was the same with Zyro and Kite, while Eight leaned against his older brother.  
Kira was the one who was seated away from them, leaning against the back of a tree that wasn't to far away, yet close enough so that the light a bit of the warmth could still reach even though he didn't really seem to care for it.  
The sun had now disappeared behind the mountains, with a thin line of gold, pink, and orange decorating the tops of them of which would soon be consumed in darkness as well as the stars began to peek out from hiding, the moon standing out among all of them as the superior as they all sat around the fire.

"I've never been out in the wilderness before.." Ren commented, now laying on her back with her head on her backpack and her hands together on her stomach, turning her head to look at her a few of them with her brown eyes illuminated by the flames, "What about you guys?" Kite shrugged, looking Ren's way before down towards his little brother.  
"Me and Eight used to go camping with our parents when our older sister used to live with us." The brunette explained, petting the hair of the dozing boy leaning against him, "The farthest we've probably been is a few campgrounds, as far as I can remember."  
Madoka chuckled softly at that, looking over towards Ren slightly along with Maru.  
"Well, I practically went everywhere with Gingka and the others when we were younger.." She said, "I'd be lying to say I haven't traveled a lot, especially during the whole Nemesis Crisis.. We kind of went across several countries for that one."

"And I went all over the place with Kyoya!" Benkei announced, a grin spreading across his face, "We went through deserts, forests, you name it!" Maru giggled happily at that, the Manager's big grin somehow always being able to brighten her spirits, as well as the rest of them - save for Kira who was just silently listening from where he was.  
Maru, seeming to perk up at something, glanced over her shoulder towards Kira, who was simply leaning against the trunk of a tree where the roots were positioned in a way that made it seem like it could make a comfortable resting spot.  
"What about you, Kira?" She asked, gaining the pastel-haired blader's attention as he opened his one eye and glanced over towards the group, where several eyes - including Maru's - were placed upon him.  
Shinobu was looking at him with an expression in light green orbs that seemed to be daring him to say something mean back to the pinkette, while a couple others just seemed to wary of what he would say - if he would say anything.  
Sighing through his nose, the Bahamoote blader simply shrugged his shoulders and closed his one eye again.  
"Been there, done that..." He answered flatly, "Nothing much.." That answer seemed to satisfy Maru enough as she said nothing more to him; she knew what he was like, so she didn't press him to go into any sort of detail since it would likely annoy him.  
Smiling a bit, Madoka then glanced over towards Zyro, who had barely said a word as he sat silently with his hands wrapped in front of his legs, a blank look on his face as he stared into the flames with eyes that matched the sky in mid-day.

The brunette's eyes softened as she looked at Zyro, sitting there in a silence that was not accustomed to his usual personality and spark as she had noticed in the time she had known him; though it was good to see him joking a bit earlier with a smile on his face, she could see that he was desperately trying to regain that spark he had always had.  
She wasn't stupid, she knew when something was wrong with her friends and people she cared about - she could see the tears that brimmed his eyes on the inside, the scars that this had left on him in such little time that it was absolutely disgusting to think about.  
Even so, she said nothing as she looked back towards the flames, leaving the ginger-ravenette to himself and his healing that would only heal the wounds on the delicate surface and small layer underneath.  
Looking back towards Maru, Madoka say the pinkette looking at her with curiosity and concern, but she simply smiled and pet her hair a bit to assure that she was okay.  
Maru smiled back and gave a big yawn, signaling her tiredness of which Madoka could definitely understand from how long of a day it had been, and from yesterday's events.  
Madoka simply smiled at this and looked up towards the rest of them who sat around the fire.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but me and Maru are gonna hit the hay." She stated, patting Maru's head as it was apparent that she was getting sleepy.  
"Yeah, I'm getting tired too.." Ren said before a yawn followed, fighting to keep her eyes opened as she stared up at the sky while still laying on her back.  
"Eight's already asleep." Kite said with a small laugh lacing the edges of his voice as he gestured down to his little brother, who was snoozing away with a peaceful look on his face while seemingly content on using his big brother as a pillow.  
"We've got a lot of walking to do tomorrow anyway.." Benkei said, stretching his arms and legs a bit to release some of the stress and stiffness that had formed in his joints.  
"Should we leave the fire going?" Ren questioned, raising an eyebrow at the flames as she situated herself into a comfortable position.

"Yeah, it gets pretty cold out here.." Madoka said and Maru situated themselves as well, making sure that they were well near the fire as to not catch a chill.  
"It's, like, 78 degrees out here." Shinobu stated, raising an eyebrow as he too got ready to fall asleep for the night, " _And_ it's summer, I don't see what we need it going for."

"Just leave it as a nightlight or something.." Kira said irritably, watching them all from where he was.  
If he hadn't been a bit tired, Shinobu might've argued with the Bahamoote blader.  
Though no words were exchanged between the two of them as they both had a brief stare-off before Kira closed his one eye and Shinobu settled down for the night.  
Zyro was the only one left awake, almost forgotten by the others as he sat wordlessly, staring into the flames of the fire they had made as if they would give him the answers to everything. How long he had been doing so for, he had lost track of.  
"Zyro?" Said Fire Blader snapped out of his trance-like state, jumping slightly as he looked over to the source of the voice near the opposite side of where he was sitting. Kite looked at him with a hint of concern in his blue eyes, taking his glasses off for the night and putting them in his coat pocket, "You going to sleep?" Zyro hummed softly, something that was barely audible before shaking his head.

"Not yet.." He said softly in a voice that just above a whisper, loud enough to reach Kite's ears as it seemed he almost had difficultly in talking as if he was reteach himself how.  
Kite simply nodded, wordlessly narrowing his eyes towards his friend as he heard the deadness in Zyro's voice.  
The flame that made up his soul had been subdued.  
It was probably nothing more than a few mere cinders by now that were desperately trying to spark light again, trying dearly to burst into the roaring flames that had always made up the spark in Zyro's spirit.  
It should never had come to this... Kite said nothing as he lay with his brother, leaving Zyro the only one really awake besides Kira who still remained the outsider from them all.  
Zyro, his eyes warm from staring into the burning cinders in the center of them all, looked up towards the night sky, the stars littering a black construction paper background with a large spot of white paint that made the moon, the large rock standing out among everything and illuminating the night.  
Constellations hid from sight, blending in with their comrades that existed as simple dots in the sky waiting to discovered and named - it was one of those clear nights, when you could almost see all the way to other galaxies if you looked hard enough, when all constellations were present for a gathering to look down on the world that loved them so.

A shiver coursed through Zyro's backside, his blue eyes tearing away from the sight that brought back the memories he had had with Gingka when they had gone star-gazing that one time; when Zyro hadn't understood why he had brought him along, only to realize a few weeks later that he wanted to make something memorable with Zyro to die with him, so that he could remember.  
Now, looking up at the star patterns in the sky didn't help his aching soul, didn't heal the scars that remained forever present on his heart, didn't relight the spark within him that had always given him the drive to do anything.  
Now, it simply broke him even more.

Wherever Alcorin was, they would find him.

They would find him and make him pay for all the pain that he had put them through, for everything he had done in his miserable life to ruin and break down others simply to have his way.  
Finding him was definitely easier said than done, and Zyro knew that all to well from their first battle with him underneath the WBBA building.  
All Zyro could do was stare into the flames in front of him, catching Kira looking at him with his one eye out of the corner of his line of vision, but paying him no mind as his thoughts did not allow him to rest.  
Kira was the one who took the time to look at the ginger-ravenette, see the weariness in his face and in his soul that was suffering from the emotional and mental abuse that was pounded onto him.  
He should be enjoying that... He should be able to look at Zyro, see the silent pain on his face, and feel a tingle run up his spine, lick his purple lips as that familiar desire would come and tell him to inflict even more such pain upon them for his own sick pleasure.  
But that wasn't there. Not this time, not since they had thought they had finished everything with Alcorin and everything would be fine yet again.  
He would look at Zyro - no, all of them - and see the damaged spirits that they kept suppressed and hidden by masks they had created from the part of them had was made up of nothing but lies, and he wouldn't be able to feel that same sadistic joy he had once been able to ever since he was young. And with Zyro, it almost made him sick.  
With heaviness in the air around them, thick with whispers and screams from long ago, Kira shook his head silently and looked away...

* * *

The only sound that echoed off the smooth stone walls in the insufferable silence was the slow tapping of his now thigh-high boots as they touched the ground, his white robes dragging and fluttering along behind him as he walked down the darkened halls that his eyes had well adjusted to in the dim lighting.  
Few torches were lit, but there were enough to give whoever walked the halls a guide for their sight. Yet even so, Alcorin needed no such thing as the light that the torches provided, for he had grown accustomed to the darkness that his eyes automatically seemed to adjust to the brightness he was given.  
This was his domain; more so than that hidden area under the WBBA building had been, more than anywhere else he had ever been in this world had.  
For here, the power that flowed through his entire body was present in the air, the aura of darkness and destruction still lingering from whom it was dedicated to, from those who had worshiped the god that he was created from as flesh and blood.

As he came to a more widened area, as he climbed stairs that spread far out, he knew that he had won. He had always known that he would win - they always played exactly as he planned, everything always going exactly how he wanted it to until the very end where he would be triumphant.  
Alcorin had only ever been after one thing. No matter what he had said, what he had told _them_ , there was only one thing that he had fought so hard to get, one thing that he had done all of this for. The feeling was indescribable as he realized that he had him... That what was taken from him so very long ago was finally his once more as he reached the top of the stairs and felt his blackened heart beat against his chest.  
His footsteps echoed in the frightening as he made his way across the very large room that may have been some great hall, passing perfectly in between the pillars that lined the room, as if holding up the ceiling that wouldn't likely cave in.  
A solemn look on his flawless features as he drew nearer to that of who sat on the stone-carved throne at the very end of the room, engravings covering the walls that were so delicately carved by those from long ago, white robes upon even whiter skin fluttering around him in a truer form than that he had taken before.

Only after what seemed like an eternity did he stop walking, standing many meters away from the one person that he had done all of this for, that he had wanted more than anything in the world to finally have back after so many years of separation because of... No, that did not matter anymore, for all that truly mattered was what was here, finally.  
He was unresponsive, eyes open yet not even really there - but he was breathing, alive, here with him. Alcorin could care less what kind of state he was in as long as he had him; because nobody would ever separate them again.  
Red eyes looked towards the only thing that he really had left, the one thing that he had wanted so badly and finally had after all the efforts he had made - they were two very different people, as was evident the years of separation had done, but they were very much the same.  
Alcorin's crimson eyes stood out upon his white skin, white clothes, white hair; a form more true than the one that he had maintained after birth, more natural than the human skin of light olive and eyes of golden-brown that matched another's almost perfectly.  
And now, that little child that he had repressed for all these years would no longer be able try and ruin everything for him, for there was no possible way that he could come back now that he had full dominance and control.  
Alcorin tilted his head in the slightest bit, a soft breath escaping his white lips as he gazed upon the only that he loved - the only thing that he could ever love.

"My dearest brother..." Alcorin spoke, his face blank yet full with the sick affection that coursed through him, "This is not how I wanted us to meet..."

With the grace of a swam and the invisible nature of a ghost, Alcorin turned and left his only brother alone in the state of unresponsiveness that he could forever be in.  
He was not met with any words in response, but he found that he was fine with that, as he did not need words or anything in response - he just needed _him_.  
Despite all that he himself had done, he loved him.  
Sickeningly, sinfully, truthfully, genuinely, he loved him. He loved him in a way that one should not feel about their brother, but in a way that was pure, untainted, and true, just like the form that he alone took.  
There was no room in his twisted, black heart for anything else but him, because he loved everything about him.

His red hair... His golden-brown eyes... And the tattered, white scarf which resembled the wings that he had clipped...

* * *

 **Alright, before anyone asks... Yes. That did just happen. That was just a plot twist, and I just did that, simply because I can, and also plot. *evil laughter in the distance***

 **Anyway, now that we've gotten to this point in the storyline, things are definitely gonna take a turn. Because you know how I explained in the ending of Gingka's Deceit that Gingka was dead? Yeah, I kind of lied about that for the sake of this story. Because, really, like I'm gonna give away any spoilers...**

 **Well, now that we have that covered, I'll let all of you go on to ponder on _how_ exactly Gingka and Alcorin are related as brothers, but it seems we got a lot of explainin' to do once this is almost over. Tata for now~! And see you all in the next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 6 - Harbored Secrets

Chapter 6 - Harbored Secrets

* * *

It was just after dawn before the WBBA helicopter finally arrived at the Tokyo WBBA building, both Ayano and Sichiro being woken up from their short naps as they touched down on the landing pad and were permitted to get off onto the roof of the Tokyo WBBA.  
Still visibly anxious about being in Tokyo at all, Sichiro glanced around while rubbing one of his arms in the uncomfortable air that surrounded him, practically following Ayano like a lost puppy.  
The greenette sighed silently, noticing how Sichiro had seemed so nervous the entire time they had been on the helicopter coming towards their current destination and simply deciding to put up with his behavior and excuse it for the nervousness of coming to a new city that he wasn't used to; she knew the feeling.  
Walking beside him as they made their towards the WBBA worker that appeared to be waiting for them on the rooftop, Ayano glanced over at Sichiro who appeared to be biting the inside of his lip.

"Just follow my lead, and it'll be fine." She said in hopes to comfort her colleague, "I've done this a million times before, I know what I'm doing. Just let me do the talking, and then we can get to work."  
Sichiro's steel grey eyes caught her own cerulean blue ones, seeming to just establish the words she had said to him after she had said them, and simply nodding in agreement to let her take the lead and do the talking.  
Ayano nodded as well, looking forward once more as they both came up to the WBBA worker of the building, who was a chestnut-haired man with green eyes in a dull blue suit, his hands behind his back in a formal manner as he stood waiting for them. Ayano mimicked this, her back straight as she stood in front of one of the many workers of the Tokyo WBBA.  
"Ayano Kagome and Sichiro Yamauchi of the Metal Bey City WBBA." Ayano declared. The man nodded, bowing in the formal Japanese manner towards the official guests of the Tokyo WBBA.  
"Oh, yes.." The man said in a soft voice, "Director Hideyoshi has been expecting you both.. If you'll follow me?"  
Ayano nodded in agreement to the worker who turned around and headed for the door on the roof that would lead them down into the building.  
The greenette glanced back towards Sichiro, who simply followed her in silence as he seemed to grow even more anxious than he previously had been, though he did well at keeping it to himself.  
The cold yet comfortably warm night air was shut off from all 3 of them as they entered the building, heading down the stairwell into the building where the worker was leading them.

"I take it Director Hideyoshi got Tsubasa's message?" Ayano questioned, to which the worker glanced over his shoulder too.  
"Yes." He answered, "He told many of us to wait for your arrival. And I got put out on the roof... Again.."  
The worker's words sounded disheartened, almost awkward yet still with a slight playful tone dancing on the edges to which Ayano could simply smile too.  
"Well then it's a good thing we're here, so you don't have to stand out there anymore." She responded, and the brunette simply smiled in return.  
"Yes." He answered, "It's also a good thing because the Director has actually been a bit eager to have you hear... Which is definitely rare."  
Pale green eyes glanced back towards Sichiro, of who caught the look like could easily have been misplaced as just checking that he was still there - he didn't have a choice either way, now did he? But the split-second glance he was given didn't make his anxiety calm down as they walked through the halls, trying to keep his breathing steady and not make a scene about it that would draw attention to him - that was the last thing he would want, especially here.  
All he did was remain as silent as was possible as they made their way through the halls, and through a few work areas where the workers were strangely busy, even at this early in the morning.  
Several glances went their way, which only agitated Sichiro even more and did nothing to settle his stressed soul that wouldn't be getting any better until he knew they were heading back to Metal Bey City.

The worker they were both following lead them towards nothing work area, where both Sichiro and Ayano could see a man that was rather finely dressed, that seemed to stand out among the other workers with a sense of authority and a cunning nature about him.  
He wore square-shaped glasses on a long nose, and appeared to be in his late 50's to early 60's from the soft wrinkles on his face and his dark brown, graying hair.  
He wore a beige suit that definitely seemed to compliment him, with a dark blue tie, and dark brown dress shoes.  
He was speaking to who appeared to be another worker - a woman with her brown hair tied tightly back into a bun, sort of like Ayano, with a hardened expression and a rather intimidating aura about her that seemed to effect most within a 3 meter radius.  
"That's the Director.." Ayano whispered over to her colleague, "Try not to seem as nervous when you're talking to him, okay?" Sichiro didn't answer her, and she simply brushed it off.  
Of all people, Sichiro did not need anyone to point out who this man was exactly - he had already known.

"Director." Spoke the worker that lead both of the other Metal Bey WBBA workers, "Sichiro and Ayano are here.. I brought them as requested." Turning his deep blue eyes towards the worker that had spoken, Director Hideyoshi smiled calmly and nodded.  
"Thank you, Satoshi." He said, which the worker - dubbed Satoshi - simply nodded to, "You can go now." On cue, Satoshi left them all to themselves, and the many workers around them that took a few glances before simply going back to their current work, which they always seemed quite sensitive about, as Ayano had seen many times.  
"Good morning, Director Hideyoshi." Ayano greeted as the man turned to her with a smooth smile.  
"Very good morning." He said in reply, "And very early.. Quite a pleasure to see you again, Ms. Kagome. And I suggest that this is your colleague?"  
Said blacknette tensed as the man's eyes went to him, a strange glint in those deep sapphires as his eyes landed on the one person who had hoped he would never have to be here.  
"Yes, this is Sichiro.." Ayano said, introducing the two of them while giving the raven the 'look' that somehow told him not to seem so stiff - it wasn't like he could help it, being here.  
"Tsubasa paired me up with him for this." Ayano continued, giving a reasonable and almost apologetic smile towards the Tokyo Director, "He's never been here before, so excuse his behavior." Humming softly, Hideyoshi simply nodded and smiled.  
"You needn't worry about it." He said, seemingly brushing the matter off without a care in the world before outstretching his hand towards the anxious-looking raven, "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sichiro."

The way he said that almost made said worker run out of the building entirely. But he tried to relatively keep his cool and shakily took the Director's hand, shaking it in a friendly greeting of which passed by like mere dust in the wind.  
"Now." Ayano said firmly yet politely now that the greetings were over, "About why we're here..." The Director seemed to get the message and simply nodded.  
"The city profiling, of course." Hideyoshi said, almost picking up where Ayano left off, "Your Director Otori told me all about it. Naomi, would you please lead Ms. Kagome to the work place we have set up for her? I believe she would like to get right down to business as soon as possible."  
Naomi nodded, her expression unchanging as she went to beckon Ayano along to where they would allow her to do what she had to.  
"You don't mind if I borrow Sichiro for awhile, do you, Ms. Kagome?" Hideyoshi asked politely, earning a small smile from the greenette in question.  
"Not at all, Director Hideyoshi." Ayano answered, her eyes shifting to Sichiro which gave a silent message to 'not screw things up' as it seemed.  
With those last words, Ayano proceeded to follow Naomi to wherever she was leading her, likely to wherever they had set up for her to do her work.  
Now, without Ayano, Sichiro felt completely naked out in the open, unsure of what he was supposed to do now that he was alone with the Director of the Tokyo WBBA in the middle of a work area where people weren't taking to much interest in them anymore.  
As Ayano disappeared from his line of sight, Sichiro nervously looked back towards Director Hideyoshi with steel grey eyes looking into deep sapphire that he could see were deceiving, a glint in them that was only towards him. But of course, he knew every reason why.

"So, Sichiro..." Director Hideyoshi began, the friendlier face that had been towards Ayano disappearing and being replaced with one that held a more authoritative and intimidating aura, "What brings you here, to the Tokyo WBBA?"  
Said raven shifted uncomfortably where he stood, unsure of how he was supposed to be handling this situation now that he was in it.  
"The same as Ayano.." He answered, trying not to stutter and keep his cool towards the authoritative man, "Profiling.. Director Tsubasa paired me up with her for this."

"I see.." Hideyoshi said with a soft hum, "Well then, I suggest that your Director knows nothing about you're-"

"Don't!" Sichiro said hurriedly, a panicked cry lacing his voice and causing a few familiar - yes, familiar - eyes to turn his way for a moment before they went back to their work.  
"Please.." Sichiro said, restating his request, "Don't talk about it... And no, if I have to answer..." Director Hideyoshi seemed to smile in amusement at Sichiro's attitude and behavior towards him and reaction in being here - so nervous, anxious, looking like he was about to freak out with every step further into the building that he took.  
"Well, alright then, if you insist." The Director said calmly, seeming to have no problem with how the younger man was acting, "After all, if you want it to be so secret, than that's your issue. Still... Your friends seem to like you quite well.. They should know something by now, shouldn't they?"  
Sichiro growled under his breath, looking away slightly while his long black hair brushed over his shoulders.

How he hated him - no, them...

All of them...

"But I suppose I have no right to judge you, my good man." Hideyoshi said rather kindly as he shifted his weight onto the opposite foot, his hands in front of him almost as if he were holding a cane, "After all... We all have to leave the past behind sooner or later.. No matter how dark it is."  
Sichiro almost retorted back to him with something sour before everything went dark, the lights quitting out for a moment with only the lights of the computer screens for guides, before they flickered back on.  
The raven anxiously looked to the ceiling as the lights continued to flicker with apparently no effect on anything else, no real cause behind it that seemed to concern anybody, from how most people just continued with their work.  
Of course, Ayano _did_ say that they were quite secretive in a few things that they did. Hideyoshi glanced up at the ceiling as well where the lights flickered almost with a pattern, a small hum coming from deep in his throat before he looked towards a nearby male worker wearing a white suit that was the opposite of a black one who had already been looking at the Director as if this meant something.  
Hideyoshi beckoned the worker over, of which he abided by, and the older man said something to him to which was audible to Sichiro's ears.

"Go check on him.." Hideyoshi instructed, which the worker obliged by and hurried off to do. The feeling of anxiety in Sichiro's chest did not calm down at all as the Director turned back to look at him - before the man could say anything, Sichiro finally made a suggestion.  
"I'd like to go work with Ayano now." He said, which was not a request, but more of a command, "That's what I was sent here to do in the first place." Hideyoshi looked long and hard at the younger man for a moment, as if testing him to see if that was what he was truly settled on - which it definitely was.  
Sighing through his nose, the Tokyo Director beckoned another worker over, saying to lead Sichiro to where Ayano was, likely analyzing the profiles on the other staff.  
Sichiro did not look back over his shoulder at the man who was likely staring into the back of his skull, though his anxiety still remained as the lights continued to flicker for an unknown reason...

* * *

It had been rather early in the morning when Zyro and the others had all set out once again.  
They had all slowly awoken, starting with Madoka who probably had gotten used to not having a full nights sleep from her work and how had things had been over the past couple of weeks, and the rest of them slowly followed.  
They had a small breakfast around the barely smoldering fire before they put it out entirely and left their small camp to fade away into something that would mean nothing later.  
Now all rested, they were able to set out on a rather good pace that already them about 2 miles away from their small camp within the hour.  
Maru was the one who kept track of everything, making sure they stuck to the route that they were taking - either way, as long as they could even faintly hear the sound of the busy main highway, they would know that they were on the right track.  
Thank god it was nice out, especially since they were traveling for such a long distance on foot - either way, it _was_ summer, and Shinobu had definitely been right when he said that it was warm out (And 75 degrees actually sounded quite accurate).  
They had already passed over the river that lead to Lake Hinuma, which - as Maru said - meant that they weren't too much farther from the city of Mito that they were hoping to get to by the end of the day at the pace they were going.  
They had had to actually go to the main rain to get across the river, seeing as how it was very large and the only likely bridge for quite a ways before they settled back to the relative wilderness near the highway - which was actually more like farm-land now, with lessening trees and flatter ground.

"How are we looking, Maru?" Madoka asked, looking down at her young student who responded by bringing up her wrist and checking the map that was equipped inside the bracelet Tsubasa had given her. After a few moments of messing around with it, the girl finally answered while still looking at the screen with her lavender eyes.  
"We're actually not to far off from the outskirts of Mito." Maru answered, keeping her eyes on the map yet still watching where she was going through its transparent self that came with its' holographic design, "A few more miles, though..."

"There's always going to be a few more miles, now that we're out here." Kira said, not really helping the situation but saying it in a matter-of-fact way.  
"You don't say..." Shinobu muttered irritably, of which Kira simply responded to with a roll of the eye - well, at least they were getting a bit better around each other, as Zyro had noticed, since less arguments had broken out between the two of them. Despite that, their dislike for each other was very prominent.  
"At least it's not too far off." Zyro commented, "Maybe we can get somewhere there."

"Well, Mito's a big city." Benkei said, looking up towards the tops of the trees that they had yet to pass by as if he were looking up towards buildings, "I say we split up once we get there. Cover more ground, ya know?"  
Madoka, a smile on her face, glanced over her shoulder towards her purple-haired friend.  
"We can decide what we're doing when we get there, Benkei." The shop owner commented before looking forward once more to watch where she was going, "This is gonna be a long trip, for sure."

"Good thing we brought our motivation with us." Ren commented in turn, hinting towards their very blatant want to finally destroy the psychopath that had played them fools the entire time, "It actually helps me sleep better at night... Is that weird?"  
Ren raised one of her eyebrows as she asked this, a sort of weirded out look on her face as she thought about how making Alcorin pay would help her sleep better at night.  
"Kind of helps with me too.." Maru admitted as she looked back towards Ren, "The guy gives me nightmares, either way.."

"I can see why." Kite commented, hoisting his backup up on his shoulders to make sure that it wouldn't slip off, "Eight had to sleep with the lights on for a few nights at home after what happened with that guy.." Huffing, Eight looked up towards his elder brother with a bit of a pouty-face.  
"That was _you_ , big bro!" The bluenette replied sternly, "Don't even try and blame it on me!" Several laughs rang through the crowd at this protest, while Kite blushed in embarrassment and pushed his glasses up on his hide to try and hide the fact that he was flustered at all.  
Ren's cackling was, unintentionally, the loudest of all of them, and was actually fairly amusing from the almost witch-like sound that came from her throat.  
Zyro laughed a bit, which Shinobu and a few of them were happy to see - most of them kept their eyes on the Fire Blader, as they were clearly able to see the ways that he had changed throughout all that had happened in such a short time span.  
They had all changed in several ways, even if it wasn't evident that it was with Zyro, or they just simply refused to admit it, much like Kira - though most could guess that he was still his same self.  
And while all of them kept their eyes on Zyro, there would always come the time when he would notice their eyes on them, know that they were watching him with wary eyes in case he was about to shatter like dried, raw pottery.  
He had already noticed, with the eyes that he say on him out of the corners of his own, but did not say a word about it as he simply knew that it was his friends' concern about him that caused them to watch him so carefully.  
He had almost died at Alcorin's hands, and he would've had the life completely strangled out of him if not for Maru.  
So to hear as much as a breath coming out of him, let alone a laugh, as a relieving thing to both hear and see; Kira was the only one who tried to deny that it was such a thing, an inner torment that he kept shoving aside only to have it come back and try and convince him that some part of him _cared_ even more fiercely than before.  
Even so, they all kept their personal matters to themselves as they continued on, the laughter dying down but still with welcome conversation.

"Hey, what _are_ we gonna do once we get there?" Ren asked, "I mean, are we gonna stay somewhere?.. Are we gonna camp out on the outskirts or something? Cause, like, covering the city is gonna take... I dunno... Forever?" Madoka glanced back towards the blond as she asked this question, and even began wondering herself.  
Where _were_ they going to stay? What were they going to do exactly, save for looking around for information if they could gather any? The others wondered about this too, now that Ren had brought up the subject.  
"There's probably a bunch of hotels around there." Shinobu said, looking towards his blond friend, "But god knows how much those cost to stay in for even a night.."

"Well..." Madoka began, clicking her tongue as she tried to think before simply smiling in reassurance, "We can figure out what we're doing when we get there.. We might have to camp out on the outskirts, or something, but we definitely are not going to be freezing our tails off, or going broke." Shinobu responded once more towards the expression 'freezing our tails off' with a bit of a weird expression.  
"Again." He began, "75 degrees out here. I don't think we'll be freezing anything off anytime soon." Zyro chuckled softly and shook his head.  
"Calm down, Shinobu." The ginger-ravenette said with a smile, "It's not the end of the world!" Shinobu smiled a bit in response to Zyro's optimism, before Maru spoke up near the front of the group.  
"Well, we're almost there." The pinkette said, though did not have the map in her bracelet in front of her this time, "Or at least I think so, since those should be the buildings of the outskirts."  
All of them looked forward and into the not-so-far-off distance, where they could indeed see what appeared to be a suburban type of landscape, overshadowed by taller buildings that weren't to much farther off from the outskirts of the city that was within their sights.

"Wow, I honestly thought we were way off." Ren said, raising an eyebrow as they all stopped to admire the city that they had been heading towards for the past 2 days - they were rather all surprised with how short the trip had actually been.  
Benkei, Kite, Madoka, Eight, and Shinobu had thought that it would've taken them, perhaps, another day or so to even be able to see Mito from a distance - but apparently that wasn't so.  
"Me too, actually." Benkei admitted, all of their eyes set on towards the city that would have to spread out through if they were going to try and find any answers.  
"So is this just what you guys do when you go on trips?" Kira asked, his hand on his hip as he stood there with them, looking towards the city that they had been given the task of heading to first, "Camp out, laugh, and then gaze at cities from the distance?"

"That's what I kind of did when I first came to Metal Bey City.." Zyro commented, his sky blue eyes glancing over towards the pastel-haired blader of who he was wondering why he had come along, "Well... Not really the first 2, but the last one I did." Kite raised an eyebrow at this, looking towards the shorter male with a questionable expression.  
"And where are you from, exactly?" The brunette asked, and Zyro simply shrugged.  
"One of those really small towns where everybody knows everybody and nobody really acknowledges its' existence." The Fire Blader answered, which seemed to satisfy the brunette enough.  
"Well, let's hope that luck is on our side for once..." Madoka sighed, recalling everything that had happened no more than a week or 2 ago and how everything hadn't actually been in their favor, "I could really do for something like that right now."

"Well, we're obviously not getting anything done by admiring the sights." Kira pointed out, flicking his wrist off to the side as a sort of gesture, "Unless this counts as some sort of progress with all of you?"

"Okay, we get it, Kira." Shinobu retorted, a slightly annoyed look on his face towards the other blader of which he was evidently not going to warm up to anytime soon.  
"Well, we should get going either way." Madoka said, taking Kira's words into consideration, "It'll definitely take awhile."

"More, walking?~.." The child complained, an almost adorably irritated look on his face at the thought of having to walk even more after so much of doing so.  
"Oh, you'll live." Kite said, hitting his brother on the head lightly, who whined in protest.  
"Let's get to it!" Ren suggested, pumping her hand up in the air, "I'm really in the need to get some good news out of all of this."  
It was almost painful to see Ren being more enthusiastic than Zyro, but they knew she was just trying to keep up the spirit, like he had before.  
Finally, they set out once more towards the city that they were heading to, still keeping mainly to the road that would lead into the city of Mito. One thing was for sure - the city was definitely big enough to get lost in, since apparently none of them knew anything about it, save for Maru who did have her map that could show them the layout of the city so they would know where they could meet if they split up.  
Hopefully, things would go a bit alright for once in the last month and a half...

* * *

He couldn't respond to anything, Alcorin knew that perfectly well as he gazed at his brother who sat there on the throne, dead eyes half-open yet staring at nothing from the state he was.  
Being catatonic, he was nothing more than a vegetable, laying there almost lifelessly as his eyes remained open, yet with no one to look out of them - Alcorin already knew that from being in his coma, he was already too far deep into his own mind to likely wake up anytime soon, if at all.  
It almost saddened him, as he gazed forward into orbs of golden-brown with his own crimson red that stood out upon pure white skin and hair, but he soon found that it didn't matter - whether comatose, catatonic, or awake, all that he had ever needed was him.

Gingka was everything to him.

Yes, he had put him through unbearable pain, yes, he had tried to kill him and had for a few minutes as it had stood, but he loved him like he had never loved anything before.

The things he would do for him sick, twisted, but it had always all been for _him_.

Gingka was his one weakness, the one thing that he ever cared about.

He had planned out practically everything, granted with the few flaws that he had been presented with when others had decided to interfere.

He knew what putting Gingka into a coma would do, knew that they would try and find him from the challenge that he had left them, knew that none of them would be there except for Hikaru when they went to find him, and knew what Hikaru would do when he released her of her lucid state. He had ruined lives, taken lives, given lives back, and it had only ever all been for the sake of his beloved brother.  
"It was only ever for you, Gingka..." He spoke, his voice echoing against the walls in the dreaded silence, and knew that his brother would likely not hear him, "We're finally together, dear brother.. No matter what kind of state you are in.."  
Alcorin's footsteps echoed as he made his way closer to the catatonic redhead who's head was tilted forward in the slightest bit from the way he sat lifelessly, white robes dragging and fluttering around him all the same as he came up to the brother that he had never known.

The albino stopped in front of him, and reached out a hand as white as freshly fallen snow, his fingers savoring the feeling of fair skin that somehow sent a hypnotic and strange feeling surging through him lightly, something that he had come to recognize, even though only having made physical contact with him one other time.  
His skin was pale, paler than it normally should've been, but still with the fairness that was a rarity upon most humans.  
The tiny freckles that dotted the bridge of his nose and his cheekbones were like faint stars on a black night filled with clouds, his bangs hanging over his headband like they always did from their length.

Gingka was his, and only his.

They were brothers, siblings, 2 people that were born to love each other no matter the type of relation.

A small giggle escaped white lips at that thought.

No... Gingka could never love him.

More like he _would_ never love him, after everything he had done to him and his friends.  
From being in a coma, he was unlikely to know about what had happened and what he had done to Dynamis and Hikaru, and what he had almost done to Zyro, but the redhead had made it clear that he hated him before they had ever even met.  
The way that he had taunted him in return with a shaking voice as he lay on the floor, pleaded for the pain to stop, suffered in silence with no one to help him through it but himself - that was enough to make it perfectly clear about how Gingka felt about him.  
There was nothing but resent, nothing but contempt as he loathed him more and more through what had seemed like endless days as he had slowly crept towards the death that he would only be pulled back from.  
His own mind was his prison, that he had been damned to by his own brother - the sick and twisted brother who he had never known, and perhaps would've been glad not too.  
But of course, he could not say, or express any of that in the state he was in.

Alcorin's smile faded, standing up as he looked down at the redhead with eyes that were of his more natural form. They were different, very much so.

The pleading in the back of his head to _leave him alone_ had faded to mere whimpers as everything as drained from the child that still hung on to the to shadow that he cast, a stubbornness that made them both so alike.

Stubborn, persistent, and the willingness to do anything for the people they cared about.

That was what made them the same... But he knew that Gingka would strongly deny them ever being related if he was able to.  
But Alcorin simply shook his head, turning away a bit while his eyes remained on the only flesh and blood that he had.

"You are no better than me, after what you've done." The albino spoke, a small giggle escaping his lips and amusement tracing the edges of his tongue that seemed to lack pigment just as his skin and hair did, "And once you're little friends perhaps find out, they'll never find the will to forgive your sins... We were never meant to be kept away from each other, dear Gingka.. For more reasons than one."

Absently, Alcorin lifted his left hand, looking down into the pure white palm that his slender fingers descended from; the exact hand that he had crushed poor Gingka's make-shift heart in.  
It had always mattered... With nothing more to say, Alcorin turned and left to retreat to elsewhere in the domain that was rightfully his - well, maybe not exactly _his_...  
The only thing that was left to be heard was the screaming from inside Gingka's own head where it would never reach the outside world that it tried to claw its' way to for 2 different reasons.

And only in the silence of the large room that he was left in did the skin on one of his finger's visibly crack.

 _..Help me..._


	8. Chapter 7 - Change

Chapter 7 - Change

* * *

 **Three Days Ago**

* * *

Isha stared down at her hands that she had folded together in her lap, the silence of the room painful as both her and her son sat across from each other, a tension between them that they knew they had to discuss before anything else.  
The lights in the room were dim, the curtains half-closed as it set a more comfortable setting for them to talk.  
That is, if Isha could bring herself to look her own son in the eye after what he had brought up to her - something that she had wished to forget, but hadn't been able to for many years of her life, even as Hyoma was growing up and her priorities had to be focused on him.  
Then again, she was one who knew very well that you couldn't run from your past forever; it would eventually catch up with you, but what happened after that was entirely up to yourself.  
Only now, she had no mortal idea of what she was going to do, what she was going to say now that it _had_ caught up with her all these years.  
How was she going to explain anything to Hyoma? How was this all going to work out if she actually managed to? Millions of questions swarmed inside her head, her blue eyes seeming to have dimmed from their shining luster of their crystalline color as she stared down at her hands.

Yet with the questions, would eventually come the answers, as it was the way that the world worked.  
Isha knew that Hyoma likely had a lot of questions, questions that he was waiting to ask her as soon as she was able to make eye contact with him, questions about the matter that he had brought before her that he wanted answered.  
She knew there was no way she could lie, no way that she could squeeze her way out of this and try to move on with her life - she had been trying to forget about it for years now, throw it away and accept it as nothing more than the past that she shouldn't have to worry about now that it was all said and done.  
But she couldn't do that.  
She knew that Hyoma wouldn't let her, and now that he knew the truth, she knew that he had already backed her into a corner.  
There was no one out of this, and Isha knew it perfectly well. After all, no one was able to run from the past forever, especially not when it was something like... Well, _that_...

"Mom."

Hyoma's voice broke the lavender-haired woman out of her thoughts, her blue eyes darting up to meet his as if she had forgotten entirely that he was there.  
She was sitting stark still, the lighting in the room giving them a comfortable atmosphere with just the two of them, something that they could talk it.

"R-right.." Isha stuttered, pushing a strand of lavender locks out of her face and behind her ear, "What do you... Want to know?"  
An awkward silence passed between mother and son, the room filled with tension as talking to one another had never felt this strangely uncomfortable. Of course it would, though.  
Discussing this rather surprisingly matter with her son was not something that the woman had exactly practiced throughout her many years of parenting.  
All Hyoma did, though, was stare at her for a few moments, blinking his bright blue eyes that were so much like her own, as if he were trying to tell her something through a telepathic link that they did not have.  
Isha was about to speak again before Hyoma's voice broke the uncomfortable and tension-filled silence that surrounded them.

"Start at the beginning." The Aries Blader said, a firm tone in his voice as if to let his mother know that she couldn't hide anything from him - from his many years of deceiving people away from Koma Village, he had come to learn to tell when someone was lying or not telling the full truth.  
The air was heavy with secrets, heavy with the tension that lay between mother and son who had never seemed more distant than they were now.  
Isha licked her bottom lip, pursing them softly before letting out a soft breath and shakily nodding her head as she recalled everything as clear as if it had only been yesterday.  
With something like that, and with how fast time had seemed to pass from all those years ago, it may very well have been.

"Okay." Isha agreed, and she began from the very start.

* * *

 **Present Day**

* * *

Cerulean eyes gazed out upon the city from the hill that both Takanosuke and Sakyo stood on on the very outskirts of the city that they had agreed to leave behind in search for the one person that they did not want to be involved with ever again.  
Sakyo had agreed with Takanosuke to go after the psychopath that they had very well both had enough of even with the short time they had known about him, though never did really say why as he knew that the blonde just really cared about his friends, a thoughtfulness about him that made him exceedingly pleasing to some people while his loudness was a bit revolting to others.  
Sakyo honestly couldn't decide which side he liked Takanosuke for, but it wasn't like he was going to admit to him being anything more than a 'Synchrome Partner'.  
Either way, the blonde seemed to be happy that he had agreed in the suggestion to go after Alcorin themselves, since they had no remote idea as to where Zyro and the others were at this point, since the B-Pit was evidently locked up and closed with apparently nobody currently inhabiting it.  
With the unknowing of where exactly they were going to go, they had both decided on heading inland, perhaps towards Ibaraki which was west of Lake Hinuma.  
They both packed very lightly, as neither of them really needed that much since they would hopefully be able to get from place to place within 2 days.

"Wow..." Takanosuke lamented as he looked over Metal Bey City on the hill they both stood on just on the outskirts, "It seems so small from over here. Which is kind of weird..."  
Sakyo simply hummed in response, keeping to himself as they both prepared themselves to leave Metal Bey City.  
They knew that would likely have to keep near the road, as they would have to go around Lake Hinuma to get to Ibaraki since there was no way across it for as well as they knew.  
"Where do you think Zyro and the others are now, Sakyo?" The blonde boy asked, turning to look at the one that he called his friend, the other looking back at him with his one visible eye.  
"Hmph.." The redhead grunted, looking out towards the city himself of which now seemed so small even from the small distance they were at, "I don't know. But that doesn't concern us. Whatever they're doing, they can do."  
Takanosuke nodded in agreement, looking down towards the grassy ground that stood beneath him.  
"Yeah, I guess so.." He said, "But still.. Maybe they're heading to Ibaraki too! I mean, we are all looking for Alcorin and stuff."  
Sakyo did nothing, simply closing his eyes for a moment.  
"I wouldn't get your hopes up." He said, before turning away from the city that had been home for a long time, and towards the road, "Let's go."

"O-okay!" Takanosuke hurriedly agreed, jogging a bit to catch up with Sakyo and his rather long strides, seeing as how he was taller than him.  
Following the road definitely wasn't to hard, and if they knew their senses of direction and how to follow signs, than they would be able to make it to Ibaraki just fine in as little time as possible - however long it would take was a good question, though.  
Even so, neither of them really cared how long it would take.  
All they knew was that that psychopath did not deserve to still be walking the earth after all that he had done to Zyro and the others, as well as Gingka.  
"Do you think we're really gonna find him, Sakyo?" Takanosuke asked, looking up towards the older male of who glanced down at him before looking forward once more.  
"We'll see.." The Dragoon Blader said simply, "We can't say we'll find anything, but we'll know soon enough."  
They barely even knew what they were supposed to be looking for. They knew that they were searching for Alcorin, wherever he was, but how they were going to find him was an entirely different story.  
Zyro and the others would probably find something, as they likely had a plan with what they were going to do; Takanosuke and Sakyo, however, had barely thought about what they were going to do. But as Takanosuke had said to him: 'If you don't try, you'll never know'.  
So, at least the blonde was on to something.

The gulls squawked down by the sea that would soon be walking away from in order to get to the town they planned to head to, the clouds minimizing their numbers so that they could allow the sun to peak through and warm the earth below it with the warmth of summer.  
In all honesty, it was a rather perfect day for travelling - well, to Takanosuke it was.  
The Griffin Blader in question followed silently by Sakyo's side, used to following his lead and trusting that he had a better sense of direction than he did.  
But as they walked on for a short amount of time, the blonde got bored rather quickly with the silence that was between them, huffing softly before an idea came to mind.

"Wanna play I-Spy?" Takanosuke asked, a cheerful look on his face as he looked towards the Dragoon Blader with bright, hopeful eyes of cerulean.  
Sakyo didn't respond at first as his one eye looked over to his one friend solemnly, before he sighed heavily in defeat.  
"Sure..." He said.  
This was going to be a long walk...

* * *

The worker that had been ordered by Director Hideyoshi had gladly lead Sichiro to the room where Ayano was, which had indeed been set up for them to both do what they had to do and what they had come here for.  
Ayano currently had a tablet in front of her, and seemed to be checking some things while a rather high-tech computer system sat in front of her.  
Sichiro would've been impressed from the design of it, but considering that this _was_ the Tokyo WBBA, he kept all recognition of admiration hidden and buried.  
At the sound of the automatic doors opening and closing, Ayano looked up from the tablet that she was sliding her fingers across, her cerulean eyes turning towards the door and greeting her colleague with a smile.

"Oh, there you are." She said, swiveling the chair towards him while she glanced down at the screen of the tablet in her hands, " _Please_ tell me you didn't screw things up with the Director?" Swallowing the bile that had arisen in his throat, Sichiro simply shook his head at that question/plea, brushing part of his hair behind one of his ears.  
"Uh, no..." He said, still stuck on his words as he felt nothing but uneasiness in being in this place, "It went fine.." Ayano nodded in approval at that and let her shoulders relax once more.  
"Good." She responded, looking down towards the screen of the tablet and turning back towards the computer system that was already up and ready for them to work with, "I was just checking the levels of personnel on here."  
Interested in getting his mind off of the now barely flickering lights and what had happened with Director Hideyoshi, Sichiro decided to try and take interest more in the job that they were sent here to do.  
Trying to calm his tense self, the raven went up to the chair his colleague was sitting in and peaked over her shoulder.  
"What does it say?" He asked, his voice stiff almost hollow as he asked, which Ayano didn't seem to notice from how caught up she was in their business.  
"Well, it says here there's at least 3 levels of working personnel." Ayano explained, taping her finger on the screen and holding it there while dragging it to bring the page down or up, "Which is rather impressive, considering they have 539 staff."

"539?" Sichiro repeated as a question, an odd tone to the way that he asked as if he were wondering if that was actually enough, but Ayano simply nodded and brushed that aside.  
"Yeah, but that's mainly just in the WBBA building itself." The greenette answered, "Believe me, Sichiro.. You probably see it because it's really dark outside right now, but this place isn't as tall as it is huge." Sichiro bent down a bit further, trying to see the screen with out getting in Ayano's way.  
"How many departments do they own?" He asked, his interest seeming to be peaked a bit. Smiling, Ayano tapped the screen a few times before coming out with the answer.  
"About 8." The greenette answered, continuing on with her analysis, "Like I said, they do own quite a few departments and such. I've never really been sure what all of them are, but I swear that one is a jewelry store."  
Sichiro forced a small laugh at that, a slightly uncomfortable look still on his face just from knowing that he was even in this building at all.  
Of course, it also came with what Ayano's answer had been to his question... All together, the Tokyo WBBA owned a total of 8 departments, companies, and facilities, so Ayano had just told him.

"Well, might as well let them do what they want." Ayano shrugged, setting the tablet to the side in case she needed it later, "Tokyo basically runs the Japanese government anyway, not like we can do anything."  
Sichiro let out a shaky breath at that statement, biting his lip lightly with his hands behind his back, tugging at his fingers that were hooked around each other as to keep himself busy with something as the hairs on the back of his neck decided to stand up.  
He knew that the Metal Bey City WBBA's surveillance systems were pretty high tech, with a lot of cameras tending to be just all over the place - and then there was the Tokyo WBBA, that obviously had a lot more power and authority over things than theirs did.  
Sichiro right dearly not to think about it, but his mind tended not to listen to him a lot of the time.  
"Well." Ayano said, sitting upright in her chair and pulling herself more to to the computer system, "Now that we have that, how about we get started?"  
All Sichiro could do was agree to Ayano's words as she turned to the computer system that the WBBA workers had already had up and ready for them to use.  
It was only then did the lights start flickering once more in an uneven pattern, not effecting the computer program or the rest of the electricity, though just flickering on and off constantly.

"Why do the lights keep doing that?" The greenette asked nobody, glancing up towards the ceiling with a raised eyebrow as the lights kept flickering within a few seconds of each other, "Something must be wrong with their Electricity Supply or something..."

"I'm sure they've got it handled.." Sichiro said reassuringly, but uneasily as he too glanced up towards the flickering lights with his steel grey eyes.  
"Who knows..." Ayano sighed, and decided to get back to work, "Some pretty weird stuff happens around here, for as well as I know.. Well, it's not our problem."  
Ayano shrugged dismissively and tucked a loose strand of green hair, typing her fingers across the keybaord as she brought up a very long list of the workers of the Tokyo WBBA workers with several categories displayed on the side could minimize the number.  
"How are we gonna do this?.." The greenette wondered, tapping her finger on the table in thought before Sichiro spoke once more.  
"Why not cut it down to levels of working personnel?" The raven suggested, "There isn't many of them, so you get larger numbers to profile rather than smaller numbers." With a small smirk on her face, Ayano glanced back towards her colleague with an impressed gleam in her cerulean eyes.

"Well, looks like your 8 years of working with us finally paid off." Ayano teased playfully, turning back to the screen and doing what he suggested with the categorization of the staff.  
Sichiro's face went blank, his body still tense and refusing to relax as he took no comfort in any room of this huge building.  
His throat felt dry and his chest was tight with the anxiety that pulled at him from even the thought of being in this place that he wished oh so dearly the Director had not sent him to.  
He had been with the Metal Bey City WBBA for 8 years, and that much was definitely true - he had learned a lot of things and even worked his way up to being one of the several people at Director Tsubasa trusted the most.  
However, in all that time, he wasn't sure he deserved to be as trusted as he was by the silver-haired man that he worked for, as there were many secrets hidden in his past that he wished to never bring to light again for as long as he had a say in the matter.  
Nobody ever questioned where he came from, or anything remotely relating to his life before he had come to Metal Bey City, and he very much liked to keep it that way.

"Sichiro!" Said raven jumped at the sudden call of his name, and looked down towards the woman that was looking at him with a raised eyebrow - she looked like she may have called his name several times rather than just the once that he heard her.

"Are you okay?" Ayano asked, a worried look on her face, "You've been acting really weird ever since we got here, you've been spacing out a bit, and I'm starting to get a little freaked out by it."  
For several moments, Sichiro had no idea what he was supposed to say to her, his mind struggling to go from point A to point B as he knew that he had to say something to her.  
Blinking his steel grey eyes, the raven simply shook his head with a slightly apologetic expression.  
"Sorry, I just have this thing with being away from home.." Sichiro answered while averting his eyes for a moment before looking back towards his worried colleague, "I'm fine, really." Ayano huffed through her nose, keeping her eyes locked on the raven for what seemed like a near eternity before she sighed and simply nodded.  
"Okay." She replied, "I'll take your word for it... Now let's stop delaying, and actually get down to work." Sichiro could only nod in agreement as the greenette turned away away from him and back towards the computer where they would finally be able to get a bit of work done.  
Well, _hopefully_ , anyway...

* * *

Zyro, Madoka, and the others were soon walking through the outskirts of Mito on the sidewalk within the hour it had come into sights, taking no time to sit around and dawdle anymore as they knew very well they had things to do here.  
They were now mainly relying on Maru's bracelet-map for guidance, as it was evident that Mito was a very big place, and very easily to get lost in if one didn't know their surroundings; of course, none of them even really knew the layout of the large city.  
The outskirts - the suburban area - was quite what you would expect for something outside of a city like Mito.  
Quiet but with several cars rolling by here or there, a few stores on several corners for neighborhood shopping that didn't require driving to the city, modest yet homely looking houses that could house just about anybody, quite subtle looking and a bit plain.  
Of course, none of them really knew anything about Mito, and everybody always _did_ say never to judge a book by its' cover - many of them had learned that for themselves, especially Zyro with how painful the processing of remembering such a thing from a few days ago was.

They had made that grave mistake when they had truly believed that Alcorin was Gingka - they would not make the same foolish fault here.  
Yet now that they were in the city, they knew they had decisions to make about how they were going to search it if they were going to find anything.  
With Maru's map showing where they were on the outskirts of Mito, they had all decided to use the Mitoshi Okushikaizukafureai Park as a small rest spot where they would figure out what they were going to do.

"The grass around here is really dry.." Shinobu noted as they all stepped into the park, several of them sitting down on the straw-like grass that had almost definitely seen better days than this.  
Most of them stayed standing, while others sat down for a rest, yet they were all still on the small, cobblestone walkway of the park that lead to a small bridge that didn't really look necessary to be there.  
"It's probably the heat.." Madoka responded, looking towards the light-haired blader for a moment before down towards the grass across the bench she was sitting on with Maru, "I don't think anybody really keeps the park grass watered anyway.. Either way, we gotta figure out what we're gonna do here."

"I still think we should split up and meet somewhere." Benkei suggested, shrugging his large shoulders, "We could cover more ground that way."

"And where would we meet up, exactly?" Kira questioned, perched on the arm of the bench with his legs crossed, "Because I don't think any of us really know _anything_ about this place, let alone it's layout. Well, except the kid, here."  
The pastel-haired blader gestured over to Maru with his head, glancing at her with his one eye over his shoulder. Whether or not Maru was bothered by the fact that Kira didn't call her by her name and instead just used the term 'kid' was unknown - and if she was, she didn't show it.  
"Well, we _could_ all just meet up at the first hotel in the phone book." Ren suggested, leaning over slightly while on the ground to look at them more clearly.  
Raising an eyebrow, Kite looked over at the blonde girl with an almost unamused expression.  
"Did you get that from Supernatural?" The brunette asked, his voice flat as he asked while when responded a grin.  
"Yeah." She said in a tone that may have been another way of saying 'duh', "I love that show."

"Well, I guess that could be an option.." Madoka said, assuring that they were all thinking things over carefully, as they definitely needed to in this situation, "There are a lot of places that we could meet up at, but none of us even know where most of them are... Either way, we'd probably get lost here before anything else."  
Zyro, who had remained silent for a good portion of time and was sitting on his hands for some reason, looked over towards the brunette with a solemn look on his face - an expression that usually remained there now as they had all noticed for the past few days.  
"Well, maybe we should just take a chance and go for it." The ginger-ravenette suggested, much to everyone's surprise, "We'll never find out anything if we just sit here and try to make out plans that probably won't work.. Either way, it's Alcorin we're dealing with, so..."  
Zyro's words trailed off into nothing, never finishing his sentence and slowly closing his mouth to fully break off what could've been said.

"'So', what?" Kira questioned, trying to urge the Fire Blader along into speaking and not just leaving off while he had no loss for words - honestly, it was still so pathetic to him how Zyro was acting.  
Sure, he had let him sort of cry the first time, when he had told him what he had figured out with "Gingka", but that was because it definitely looked like he needed it. Now, he was acting roughly the same way he was during most of the week that Gingka was dying while comatose, and - in all honesty - Kira was not looking forward to putting up with that attitude again, despite the circumstances that all of this had done to the other.  
Sky blue eyes looked at only one that was the color of Fool's Gold, letting out of a breath and looking away before answering/continuing what he was saying.

"It's Alcorin, so..." Zyro began, almost struggling to find the words but forcing them out of him as best as he could, "So... Plans might not even work, knowing how he works."  
Kira barely nodded, satisfied that Zyro had finished his sentence rather than just let trail off and have the rest of them just feel sympathetic for him.  
As much as the kid irritated the hell out of him, at least he wasn't naive, unlike Arrow back in Metal Bey City who evidently was too lacking of judgement for his own good.  
"Hey!" Maru suddenly exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention towards her, "I'm getting a call from Tsubasa!"  
At this, most of the bladers who had been sitting on the ground perked up, and went behind the bench to see what was happening.  
Zyro stood up from where he was sitting as well to go over and see what the Director had in store for them - hopefully he might've been a bit more successful in a couple days than they had been so far in getting here in the first place.

 _..Zyro..._

Zyro's heart stopped almost mid-beat.

Everyone around him seemed to freeze as a faint, small voice entered from the back of his skull, unable to tear away from it and only able to listen to the small voice that he had heard so many times, and had dearly hoped would go away.

 _..Zyro... Please..._

Time around him seemed to stop, or at least slow as the small, delicate voice in his head seemed so much weaker than before, almost desperate like someone who was in a holding cell and pleading to be let free.  
His breath was shallow, trying to listen and hear the voice that called out to him at this moment - but now, it was far more faint and weak than ever.

 _..Please... Come to... Please..."_

Whatever spoke inside his head seemed to become distant, as if fading away into the small breeze that blew through the outskirts of Mito and allowed them all a little relief from the heat of summer, almost as if it wanted him to follow it somewhere, or as if it were fading away and calling out to the first person it could speak to through some unknown means that was filled with emotions of sorrow, grief, remorse, almost reflecting Zyro's own like he and it were part of the same thing.  
'Come to...' it had said, but had never finished what it was saying, with a missing 'me' or something else trailing off the end, calling out to him through the supposed attempt of an escape from something else.  
And, with some sort of natural and connected feeling coming from it, Zyro listened.

The rest of the 8 others were all at the bench that Madoka, Maru, and Kira were sitting on, the younger bladers coming up behind the bench and looking over Maru's shoulder at the screen that she had protruding from the bracelet Tsubasa had given her.  
A small light on Maru's bracelet was blinking red, at the same time, something in the corner of the map she had up was blinking red as well; seeming to know what she was doing, Maru tapped just above the holographic screen on the blinking alert, which brought up a different screen containing Tsubasa's well present face, which was a sight for sore eyes.  
"Hey, how's it going with all of you?" The Director greeted, a pleasant smile on his lips as he saw most of them on his screen back at the WBBA building.  
"Hey, Tsubasa." Madoka greeted as well, "What are you calling for?"

"I was calling to see where all of you are right now." The silverette responded, brushing part of his bangs out his face only for them to fall back into place in vain, "Somewhere near Mito, I'm hoping?" Ren, who had been on the first to get up and behind the bench, smiled at this question and answered it herself.  
"If 'somewhere near' counts as one of its' parks, than yeah, we're pretty near." She said with an energetic smile. A small chuckle protruded from Tsubasa's throat, a slightly relieved look on his dark features.  
"That's good to hear." He responded, "I actually thought it would've taken you longer than that."

"Believe us, so did we." Madoka commented with a weary smile on her face, the small bags under her eyes present from not being too far away from the screen as she was just beside Maru - it could only be guessed that she wasn't getting to much sleep after hearing about their unknown failure to save Gingka, "We just got here, actually, so we haven't scouted out anything yet... What about you?"  
At that question, Tsubasa appeared to look at something off to the side, the sound of something sliding as his arm moved coming from the other side of the screen - though they were unable to see what it was, due to the restricted size of their communication.  
"I've got a few things back from the colleagues I sent to Niigata." Tsubasa asked, "But as far as I've been able to check, there's nothing here that could be of use to us to trying to find Alcorin.. I should be getting a few things back from those I sent to Sendai, so I'll let you know if I find anything." Finally, Tsubasa's golden eyes looked back towards the screen, a grave-looking expression on his face, "Remember to be careful while you're there. There's no telling what could happen, at the rate things are..." Madoka smiled in response.  
"Don't worry, we will be." Said the brunette, "Especially after what happened last time..."

"And how as Zyro been doing?" Tsubasa asked, his voice laced with concern as they all evidently remember Zyro's previous state, which had even been worse that Madoka's once she had reluctantly come to realize Gingka's demise as truth.  
With her, there had been tears, but there had been anger than sorrow - sorrow, yes, but the anger towards Alcorin washed over that and told her that she would have time to grieve, but that they couldn't let that psychopath get away with all of his wrong-doings.  
Zyro, though just as angry with Alcorin as they all were, had been more tears than anything else as the overwhelming anxiety of failure had almost had him break down, as Shinobu had seen.

"Um..." Madoka hummed, unsure of exactly how to answer as her turquoise eyes wandered off to the side, "He's kind of right here... Wait, no he's not.." Glancing around, they found that - indeed - Zyro was nowhere to be found in their group of 9-turned-8.  
As it stood, none of them had seen Zyro leave - and they also had no idea where he could've gone when he was just there not even a few minutes ago.  
"So he took off on us in his 'poor, vulnerable state of sorrow'.." Kira concluded in a rather melodramatic way before sighed irritably and rolled his only eye, ".. Drama queen.."

" _You're_ a drama queen." Shinobu retorted poorly, having found no better words to currently use other than that; after all, it was quite true..  
"You're right, I _am_ a queen." Kira sassed back with a small smirk of his purple-coated lips, which made Shinobu look like he was about to tackle the pastel-haired blader to the ground at any moment.  
"I'll... Go look for him." Ren suggested, eyeing Kira and Shinobu warily as she passed and hurried along the beaten path, her shoes echoing loudly from beneath the wooden bridge that still didn't seem too necessary - it wouldn't have been if it weren't for the sudden dip that the ground did below it.  
Whatever would happen between Shinobu and Kira, and what happened with the rest of the conversation with the Director would be temporarily unknown to Ren as she made her way along the park path - the park itself wasn't too big, so as long as Zyro was likely still within its' boundaries, it wouldn't be hard to find him. Her brown eyes darted this way and that, searching for any sign of the Fire Blader who had just decided to take off on them for some unknown reason that he would definitely have to explain.

"Zyro!" Ren called out, bringing a gloved hand to her mouth to made her voice travel in case he would answer, "Where are you?"  
The blonde hurried along the path, her pace no faster than a small jog as she searched for her friend. "Zyro!" She called out again, heading along the curved path until she came to almost the exact opposite side of the park of where she knew that Shinobu and the others were sitting - and that's where she saw him.  
"Zyro!" Ren exclaimed, hurrying up the Fire Blader who sat cross-legged in front of the pond that was - strangely - shaped like a foot, his face blank of emotion as he rocked back and forth slightly while staring aimlessly out across the very small body of water - almost like a small child that had never seen a pond before, which was awfully strange.  
"Zyro?" Ren questioned, her voice filled with concern for the friend who's burning fire was there, but only a small flame lit on a candle, and not yet the roaring inferno that they always knew, "Are you okay?"  
Zyro visibly bit his bottom lip, the small remnants of tears lacing his eye lashes as they fought to escape.

He didn't answer.

Ren, her thoughts only focused on the other, went and sat down, cross-legged, beside him, tilting her head forward a bit to get a better look at him.  
"Zyro?" She asked again, causing the Fire Blader to glance over at her with now sky blue orbs before looking downwards a bit.  
"Sorry." Was all that came from Zyro's mouth, his voice cracked slightly, subdued in a way that was unbearably painful to hear - it shouldn't be that way.

His eyes should be burning with determination, his aura should be evident, almost painfully, around him as he pushed them all forward with his confidence that told them they would find Alcorin, his posture should be powerful, determined, lacking doubt, his voice should be loud and upbeat, his tone should be optimistic and telling them that they _could_ do this and they _would_ win against Alcorin in this round.

Where did all of that go?

How did the outgoing, energetic, determined boy that she knew and cared about be reduced to this in a matter of 2 weeks?

Now that she thought about it... Why was _she_ the one who was trying to keep them all optimistic when that was usually Zyro, and sometimes Takanosuke who wasn't with them?

Why was Shinobu the one that was trying to keep a bit of conversation going from time to time when he was usually so quiet?

Why was Maru now one of the soul leaders of the group when she was the one that usually followed?

Why was Madoka now so seemingly tired when she had always seemed to be up and ready for just about anything that came her way?

They had all been through a lot since they had all met each other, especially with the DNA and Neo Battle Bladers - but all of them had come out there with new allies and friends, new teammates and new victories, and, most importantly, a new and bright future ahead of them all.

What was it about what happened with Alcorin that made all of that seem to come crashing down into a pile of ash?

What was it about him, of all people, that made most of them change so drastically?

"Why'd you run off like that?" Ren asked out of concern, "And how'd ya do it without any of us seeing you?" In response, Zyro gave a small shrug of the shoulders and looked up, gazing at the water that was as black as his hair.  
"I don't know.." He said, almost simply, "I just kind of... Did, I guess. I heard something, like someone was calling me, and..."

"You decided to follow it?" Ren questioned, practically finishing his sentence for him. The Fire Blader nodded, and continued on with his explanation that he almost seemed to struggle with.  
"I don't know what's wrong with me." He admitted suddenly, which to the blonde's surprise, "I keep hearing voices in my head, and they tell me to do things, and I keep trying to listen to them, and I don't know why I'm hearing them." Zyro bit the inside of his lip for a moment before shaking his head, "I'm not crazy, I swear, I just... I just keep hearing things."  
Ren's eyes stood wide at this statement, unsure of what to make of it as her memories suddenly flashed back to what had happened in her battle with Genjuro in the Bridge To The Future Tournament.

Voices... Hearing things...

Ren had always sworn she was crazy since that day - but seemingly not.

"I don't think you're crazy." The blonde said reassuringly. Zyro sighed, shaking his head slightly as he wiped at his eyes that had earned enough rough treatment over the last couple days.  
"I can't get over it..." Zyro said, his voice shaking as he cursed at himself silently for even wiping at his eyes where tears wished to gather, "I keep telling myself that it won't matter, but it does..."

"What is it?" Ren asked, trying to ease Zyro's way through his explanation - it was hard with him, as she had never had to do so before. Her older sister had always been the one who had been doing that to _her_ , never really the other way around.  
But those times were in the past, seeing as how Ayumi had moved away to South Korea for her job, and aside from phone calls and video messages, there was little communication between the two.  
Instead, Ren just decided to listen as best as she could - that was what friends do, right?

"I couldn't realize that _that_ wasn't Gingka..." Zyro hissed out, his emphasis on the one word sickening and full of a bitter distaste - it wasn't really like him, "And I know I shouldn't be blaming myself, but I can't help it.."  
Ren's brown eyes softened towards the other blader, and with a gentleness that came even through her nature, she placed a hand on Zyro's shoulder, which the Fire Blader didn't protest to.  
"Well, it's only been 3 days." Ren said, trying her best to comfort the other blader even though she knew she might not be able to make things better, "Don't pressure yourself too much... Besides... Once we're done with the guy, he's gonna be wishing he never set foot in Metal Bey City!"  
A small smile graced Zyro's lips at that statement, his eyes showing that he did want to believe that, but another part of him saying that this may all be for naught as well.  
"Yeah, I guess..." The Fire Blader said, his expression soft with a small flickering in the depths of his soul. Ren smiled a bit, before leaning in and placing a small peck of a kiss on Zyro's nearest cheek - she giggled when she pulled away as his expression morphed into one of embarrassment, a light pink blush lining the bridge of his nose and around his cheek bones. She had only kissed Zyro one other time, which had indeed been a simple peck on the lips, but it amused her to no end to seem him look all flustered when she did.  
"Come on, Zyro." Ren urged, standing up from her sitting position and holding out a hand to her friend as an offer to help him up, "Let's get back to the others before Kira and Shinobu start tearing each other apart."  
A small smile crossed Zyro's face, and - though he may not have needed to at all, and simply so out of gratitude - took Ren's hand, though he lifted himself up more so than she helped him.

"Okay.." He agreed, the shadows and ghosts of his previous self-pity and grief still clinging on to the edges of his slightly brightened mood, but not enough to subdue it again.  
Their decision made, both Zyro and Ren made their way back down the short, cobblestone path that would lead them back to the others, who had even been visibly present from where they had been - hopefully Shinobu and Kira weren't at each other's throats by now.  
But even as the breeze let on a coolness in relief to the hot summer warmth, Zyro's mind flickered back to the voice that had spoken in his head, had pleaded to him vaguely for him to do something, for him to 'come to' someone or somewhere, but never knowing what from the failure of it being able to finish its' sentence.  
But now, the very same voice that had been in the back of his head throughout most of the week that Gingka had been comatose had dimmed, faded, been subdued far beyond what it had originally had been - even now its' voice seemed have been strained as it called out to the Fire Blader that could feel the presence of it slowly fading.

Though as strange as it may seem - it made him feel more empty.


	9. Chapter 8 - Searching

Chapter 8 - Searching

* * *

"I honestly cannot believe I was paired up with you..."

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Kira.."

"Considering that you're the one who keeps running off and pouting in his spare time, it is."

The 9 of them had all officially decided to start their search or 'scouting' not to much longer after they had received the message from Tsubasa, and had all walked on further towards the city itself and had devised small groups on the way.  
They were all groups of 2, except for Ren, Shinobu, and Benkei, who had had to make a group of 3 considering they had an uneven number of people.  
Those 3 had gone together, Madoka and Maru had formed 2, and Kite and Eight - being brothers - had decided to go with each other as well.  
Which meant there had been only 2 left: Zyro and Kira.  
Zyro was absolutely fine with pairing up with Kira, but said Bahamoote Blader had been the exact polar opposite and had protested slightly - Shinobu had also protested, which came from his friendly affection towards Zyro and his rather strong dislike of Kira of which the other gladly returned.  
It was reasonable, considering what had happened back in Neo Battle Bladers earlier that summer in June - reluctantly, the two managed to work with each other, seeing as how they were all on the same side now.  
'The enemy of my enemy is my friend', so the saying went.  
Having been much more closer to the city, they all split up in different directions, most agreeing with Zyro that plans would not always work out that well and simply deciding to take their chances and hope that they would all be able to regroup eventually; hopefully - and most preferably - before dark.

"I do not keep pouting." Zyro protested as they both walked along one of the sidewalks, not truly knowing what they were supposed to do to try and find out anything.  
"Well, considering that you ran off on most of us and apparently went to sulk, I think that you do." Kira responded, walking beside the Ifraid Blader and glancing over at him with his only eye, "Honestly... Weeping about what happened is _not_ going to get you anywhere, Zyro. This is obviously why you all need me here..."  
Zyro raised an eyebrow, looking over towards the pastel-haired blader that he had been paired up with for their search.  
"Is that why you came along?.." The ginger-ravenette questioned, "Because you didn't want me to keep crying?"  
Kira didn't respond right away to that, falling silent while he knew Zyro upon him for an answer as they walked almost aimlessly around the city - granted, they weren't even fully in the city yet, but still right on the borders of it.

Was Zyro actually asking if he... Cared?

No.

He didn't care - he didn't give a damn about a single one of them. He just hated their pathetic whining that otherwise wouldn't stop if he wasn't around.

"If you absolutely _have_ to know, yes.." Kira answered begrudgingly, "Having all of you weeping over Hagane actually being dead is not something I want to put up with.. Besides, I still that favor to return.."

"I never said that you still had to return it.." Zyro said, remembering the end of the conversation they had had roughly 3 days ago when he had found out that they had played right into Alcorin's hands and unwittingly let him win.  
"Of course you didn't.." Kira said, closing his one eye for a moment before opening it again to assure that he could watch where he was going, "I said that would help you take the guy down as to repay you for.. Saving me... Obviously we didn't prove successful in that, so I still have a favor to return.."  
Zyro hummed softly, thinking about this response for a moment before looking back towards the pastel-haired boy with a small smile on his face.  
"So, an eye for an eye, huh?" He questioned, only somewhat remembering how the saying went. They once taught them about it in class back in his hometown, though there had only been a brief mention of the term.  
Kira turned his head towards the Fire Blader with an almost bitter look, his only eyebrow raised in questioning.  
"Is that some sort of weird joke?" He asked, almost seeming offended by the term even being brought up.  
Zyro's smile faded, a confused look crossing his face as he failed to understand Kira's reasoning for being slightly offended.  
Sighing irritably, Kira placed a hand on his hip and tapped one of his fingers against the side of the eye patch that completely covered half of the right side of his face.

"Oh!" Zyro exclaimed in realization, "Uh, no. It's... Just a saying, kind of.." Kira rolled his one eye as they carried on.  
"I know what it is, Zyro..." The Bahamoote Blader said irritably, "It's just more ironic with me."

"Uh-huh..." Zyro responded awkwardly, looking away as they both continued down the sidewalk almost aimlessly. He would be honest with himself about not really knowing anything about Kira, seeing as how the two of them were never really that close, considering their allegiances back in Neo Battle Bladers.  
He had actually thought that Kira's eye-patch was just some sort tracking device in a sense, seeing as how he had used it in his battle with Shinobu to figure out his way past the Salamander Blader's special move; he wouldn't have ever thought that Kira had lost that eye at all.

He wanted to ask about it.

Ask how he had lost his one eye, why he had an eye patch in place of it if he was half-blind anyway, which even made him want to ask about Kira's life altogether.  
Ask where he came from, what his childhood was like, and what happened that made him decide to join something like the DNA in the first place; something made him want to ask Kira all of these questions, something that was fueled by the new-found knowledge that he, indeed, only one eye.

Curiosity.

A very troublesome and mischievous little thing, since it apparently killed a cat in that one little saying that it originated from.  
Zyro knew better than to ask about something that had nothing to do with him - especially since he knew that this was Kira he was talking to.

"So..." Zyro began, trying to diminish the wall of awkwardness that had set itself in-between them, "What are we even gonna do to try and find out anything?.. I mean, asking around would probably take a long time, and we don't know anything about this place, either way..." Kira, raising his one eyebrow, glanced over at the Fire Blader with a solemn look.  
"Well, if there's one thing I do know.." Kira began, "It's that every place has its' secrets.. Where there are secrets, there are rumors.. And when there are rumors, people are going to be talking... So I think you know what I'm implying here."  
Zyro stared at the ex-DNA blader for a moment before raising an eyebrow - honestly, he kind of did expect it from someone like Kira; not to say that he was a bad person, though. Yes, he was a little messed up in the head, as evidently shown with how he got his pleasure from the pain of others, but there had to be a reason for that, right?  
"Eavesdropping?" The Fire Blader questioned, though it wasn't with a tone that sounded like he was surprised - with how he knew Kira could be, and how he was back in Neo Battle Bladers, he wasn't that surprised that the pastel-haired boy would do that sort of thing. Either way, everyone did at some time or another, whether they wanted to or not.  
"Not exactly, but something of the sort." Kira responded with a small smirk making its' way onto his purple-coated lips, "It may be a big city.. But people are bound to talk either way. I'll have you know I am quite persuasive.."

Zyro said nothing in response, looking down towards the ground for a moment before silently agreeing to the idea.  
It wasn't the most ideal thing that they could do, but at least it was something, considering that they were all pretty much clueless of how they were going to get anything that could help them.  
They did have Tsubasa back at the WBBA, but it wasn't guaranteed that he was going to find anything either, even with how many people he had sent out to other WBBA corporations in Japan.  
They may as well do with what they could manage at this point - and eavesdropping - or whatever it was that Kira had in mind - was apparently one of the only options they had, thanks to Kira.  
Either way, he was one of the smartest of all the ex-DNA bladers - Zyro would've thought that he would've stayed with people are more friends to him them people like them with issues of their own. Maybe not...

* * *

Madoka and Maru had teamed up with each other as teacher and student when they had all decided to split into groups to cover more ground; once they had set off, they were also confused about what exactly they were going to do to try and find anything that could help them in their search for Alcorin, granted that they had the help of Maru's bracelet that could do a number of things to possibly aid them in finding anything.  
It had taken a few minutes of walking and scouting the map before Maru came up with a place that would almost always have something that they could work with - the library.  
Thanks to the map in Maru's bracelet, they were able to find it easily; it wasn't surprising that it was definitely big, almost with enough isles of books to get lost in if they weren't careful.  
There were several people there, as was expected, which including the Librarian - a man with glasses and short steel grey hair that complimented blue eyes.  
He glanced up at the two of them only once with a small wave of greeting before heading back to the computer in front of him, busy with his work of keeping track of who had brought back their books, who hadn't and were overdue, who had signed them out, and helping people who came up to the front desk to sign them out.  
Several other people, who appeared to be simply browsing or had come to look for a good book to read were standing and gazing upon the shelves, some taking out a few books from their spots and reading the backside to see if it was interesting.

Several large windows all around let enough light in, as well as some lights that were around for when it got dark and the natural light could no longer be depended on.  
The only thing that the silence of the library was broken by was the typing of the keyboard from the Librarian and the quiet chat of a few people who were looking for books and sitting at round tables in the corner before the wall ended and turned further into the library - supposedly, the people at the tables were college students or something of the sort.  
One of them had a computer and was typing away almost endlessly, stopping every once and awhile to look at the open book and papers beside her; two others seemed to be working on some sort of project together, both having pencils, erasers, sharpeners, papers, and a couple books around them, quietly chatting with each other over an incomprehensible subject.  
Madoka wondered if those students - she guessed that was what they were - ever stayed in the library late into the night to study for their Coarse's, or gathering information on any projects that they had to work on. She didn't know about this city, so it wasn't like it really mattered.

"Where should we start looking first, Chief?" Maru asked, looking up towards her teacher as they both still stood in front of the doorway that had lead them inside the library.  
"Hmmm..." Madoka hummed, bringing a finger up to her chin and tapping her lips in thought, "Well, there has to be something around here... I say we look around for anything before asking." Maru could simply nod in agreement, keeping up a cheerful attitude as she took Madoka's hand as to not get lost or separated from each other - the library was quite big, though it would be easy to find each other from how little people there were and how quiet it was - and started down one the many isles of books that the library contained.  
Both of them took their time scanning the shelves, reading what categories the books were under and looking at their titles. Madoka wondered how on earth they were going to cover anything with how big the place was - there were a lot of categories and a lot of sections, most not containing what they needed.  
Of course, they hardly knew what exactly they _did_ need.  
At this point they were all just looking for a needle in a haystack; Alcorin being the needle, and all of Japan being the haystack that they had to go burrowing through to find him.

"Hmmm..." Madoka pondered silently as they headed into another section, which just happened to be Sci-Fi - nothing that would likely help them, "Maybe we should look for the Religion section.. There were some people who might've worshiped Nemesis at one time, so it might be able to help if we find anything."

"People must've." Maru agreed, "I mean, he was a God and stuff... Somebody must've worshiped him, besides Alcorin, since a lot of people look up to a lot of different things." Madoka smiled down at her young student, her turquoise eyes soft yet with a pride of them that went only towards Maru.  
"Yeah, I guess so." The brunette replied, "Now we just need to find out what section Religion is in.. Which could take a bit."  
Maru giggled slightly as they kept looking through the isles, coming towards the more northern side of the library, which appeared to be more of a study area.  
Along with the large windows that let a lot of natural light in with hardly any use for the ceiling lights were fair-sized desks with computers on them that people could use to see if any books were in by themselves, or for research while they were there.

There was actually a few people using them, and there were even more tables than what they had seen to the southern end of the building, with many more people at them; some were reading books, some were writing down notes as they looked from their open books to their papers, some had laptops open while conversing quietly with each other.  
A quiet setting like this was quite relaxing, as libraries were usually meant to be. Madoka and Maru both scanned the shelves and looked at what sections and categories they were all under.  
The two of them walked along the side of the library, their eyes keeping watch for anything that was Religion related, or the section itself.  
"Biographies, Crime, Suspense..." Madoka muttered to herself as they walked past the shelves and several isles of books, "Poetry... No Religion."

"We'll find it, Chief." Maru said optimistically, taking her hand out of Madoka's for a moment to fix her high ponytail, which Madoka knelt down to help her with.  
"Yeah..." Madoka agreed wearily, making sure to gather Maru's hair with her hair around just around her knuckles, "It _should_ have a Religion section, anyway..."

"Psst!" Madoka, slightly startled by the sudden, yet rather quiet noise to get her attention, looked over to a computer desk near them, where a woman with black hair and amber eyes was looking towards them - likely the one that had tried and succeeded to get Madoka's attention. With a somewhat wide finger, the woman pointed over towards the farther end of the library. "Religion's over there." The woman said helpfully, Madoka's eyes following where she was pointing before looking at her again with a grateful smile.  
"Thank you." The brunette responded, which the other woman just nodded to and went back to what was likely her studying on the computer.  
Finishing fixing Maru's ponytail, the two of them headed over towards the farther end of the library, thanks to the help of the kind colleague student - that was what Madoka presumed her to be, anyway.

"Well, that was convenient." The brunette commented, looking down towards her student her smiled back slightly with a glance towards her.  
"Yeah." Maru agreed, "Kind-of-good-luck for once, huh?" Madoka smiled warmly at the pinkette in response.  
"Small, but it's something." Madoka replied. "Maybe we can actually find something, Chief." Maru said hopefully, "Like me and Dynamis sort of did at the Mist Mountain Shri-..." Maru's voice suddenly trailed off, and Madoka looked down towards her with slightly wide eyes and a concerned look on her face as Maru's hopefulness was suddenly subdued all in a matter of a moment.  
Madoka could tell, because she could always _feel_ the radiance around Maru with her upbeat personality, with her hope for the best, with her positive and optimistic attitude that things would usually and hopefully turn out alright; just like how Zyro was - no, _is_... Was.

Maru's smile had faded from her face, her hand slipping out her teachers and falling limply to the side as the memories of what happened at the Mist Mountain Shrine no more than 2 weeks came flooding back to her, almost fresh in her mind as it felt like only yesterday when she had been at the Mist Mountain Shrine with Dynamis, when they had actually found something that would have been able to help them in saving Gingka, when Alcorin had appeared very uninvited, and when she had been knocked to the side while Alcorin killed Dynamis in cold blood.  
Back then, it had seemed all to surreal for it to even happen, but Maru realized that it had - she dearly wished she had never gone to the Mist Mountain Shrine; it may have never have happened, otherwise.  
Their going there had been pointless either way, since she had come back empty handed all because of Alcorin - it could've been avoided... Dynamis could be alive if not for her agreeing to go there with him.

"Maru?" Madoka called out gently, kneeling down to her student with a look of concern on her face, "Are you okay?"  
Maru didn't answer right away. She didn't even look at Madoka, staring down at her feet and catching sight of the small red patches on her knees from when she had scraped them at the Mist Mountain Shrine - they were better now, of course, but they still got irritated at times from the now light abrasions.  
"Why did it have to be Dynamis, Chief?..." Maru's voice was tear-stricken, almost strained in a way that broke Madoka's heart, "He didn't do anything!..."  
Tears of salty water came to Maru's eyes at the memories that came flooding back to her all at once, unable to stop a few droplets from leaking down her cheeks at remembering things that she had hoped that she could leave in the past - she had honestly thought that Dynamis' death hadn't been in vain, until they found out that Alcorin was still alive and they had unwittingly killed Gingka instead.  
Madoka reached out and gently placed a hand on her student's shoulder, not knowing what she could say now that would comfort the girl, comfort her tired and broken soul that had all been the cause of Alcorin.

"It wasn't his fault, Maru.." Madoka said weakly, her voice quiet - not because they were in a library, but because she knew that that had been one of the most delicate of times for Maru.  
They had all wanted to believe that Dynamis wasn't dead, that he was okay and he was still breathing - but they knew that Maru wouldn't lie.  
She _did_ lie about not talking to Dynamis for 3 weeks, but they had agreed that it may have been for the best as they had not been sure about too much either, and that knowing about Gingka's condition before he had fallen into his coma would've probably made matters worse.  
"I know..." Maru said, sniffling softly and wiping her eyes, "I just don't get why Alcorin had to hurt him..."  
Lavender eyes, filled with fresh tears, turned towards the teacher that she had known almost all of her life.  
"Was it something I did?.." Maru questioned, "If I didn't agree to go there, would he be okay?... Did Alcorin hurt him because of me?!..."  
Madoka's eyes widened at these questions, even more taken aback with each word that came out of Maru's mouth, and even more unsure of what she was supposed to say to tell her that it wasn't her fault.  
None of this could ever be Maru's fault, no matter what Alcorin tried to make them think - he was just trying to get into their heads.

Maybe he actually had with Maru.

Feeling her eyes dampening, Madoka reached out and gently pulled Maru into her arms, letting the girl grasp onto her jacket and bury her face into her shoulder as she wrapped her own arms around her and gently petted her hair.  
"Maru, it could never be your fault.." Madoka whispered comfortingly into Maru's ear, "You didn't do anything wrong.. Shh, it's okay.."  
Soft, muffled sobs escaped Maru's throat, the image of Dynamis's dead corpse flashing before her eyes every time she closed them - but by now, she couldn't bring herself to really care.

"It's not your fault, Maru..."...

* * *

In the darkness, he watched them all.

The cameras that monitored his room shut off, the tiny microphones planted behind his bed-frame, on the roof by the blackened lights, and on the side of the chair that he sat in all measured to a high enough frequency so that no one would hear anything.  
Soft breaths escaped his mouth as if from exhaustion, the sickly state of his body taking a tole on his health and causing him to breathe more than one naturally had too through their mouth.  
It didn't bother him, nor did it frighten him - not anymore, at least.  
He had become accustomed to his condition, as he knew there was no way it was going to get any better from this point; the years of what went on with him had made sure of that.  
It didn't matter to him anymore, either way - he would be glad to be free of this life that he had been born into with no escape, no other choice to obey all that they were told because they were meant for nothing more than this.

He had taken a lot of things upon himself, all in a very short span of time that had been faster than the life he had lived going by.  
He had worked even before this to assure that they never got to him, that they never discovered his existence and recognized him, pulling him back into the place that he himself would dare call a home - the only home he had ever known, though it wasn't much of one, considering _what_ it was.  
The darkness settled him, far more than the white, teal, and dull green walls that surrounded him daily, eternally, with no hope of ever truly seeing real light.  
Of course, the light from the holographic screen created in front of him was all that he needed, always watching from some corner of the building - they knew he would do this, presumably because they thought that he was simply bored, sitting almost limply in a room that he had seen too many times.  
But it was far beyond that - and this time, it was more worth it than he took credit for.

They were here.

But _he_ shouldn't be.

Having left years ago, he knew that there was no way that one should even have thought of coming back let alone be there, with wherever he went - but he was.  
He could only ask himself why that was so.  
He let out another tired breath from between his lips, his hair streaming over him from its' length, unusually long locks falling over the chair that he sat in while he lay and watch as it all played out.  
After all, there was nothing more that he could do than that...

* * *

"Big bro, what are we gonna do?" Eight asked, looking up towards his brunette of a brother as they both walked along side each other down the street.  
They, being brothers, had decided to team up together to search for anything that could help them all in their search for Alcorin, all of them having split up into separate pods as to cover more ground than they would as a whole and single unit of 9 people.  
They had all split up in separate directions heading into the city, and had decided to take their chances with hoping that they would all be able to meet up before the sun set over the mountains in the distance.  
Luckily, they did have a lot of time on their hands as it was only mid-day; Mito _was_ big though, so it could be awhile before any of them met up again.

"We're going to be looking for anything that could probably lead us to Alcorin." Kite explained, "Considering the size of the city, and how many people make up its' population and are likely to hear of or see things, the chances of us finding anything would likely be 45% chance out of 100. Which - in this situation - is more than enough." Eight stared at his older brother for a moment before sighing dramatically and looking forward.  
"But this place is huge~!" The bluenette said, "We're never gonna find anything in this place, it'll take to long."

"'Where there's a will, there's a way', Eight." Kite said, "45% may not be totally in our favor, but in the situation that we're all in, it's definitely something that we can rely on." Eight huffed through his nose.  
"If you say so, big brother." The Orochi Blader replied as they both walked down the street, many people and cars passing them with mid-day activity that they were used to - after all, they had spent most of the summer so far in an equally as big of city that was Metal Bey.  
Either way, they were from a city themselves, so the busy lifestyles of those who surrounded them was something that both of them had grown used to throughout their childhoods.  
Kite always made sure that Eight stuck close to him while they were in the streets, as he didn't want to lose his little brother or have him get lost - it was a simple brotherly type of instincts to want to keep him safe with the love for him that coupled it.  
They both knew what they had to do, and what they had all set out here to do in the first place - try and gather any information they could that would possible be able to help them find where Alcorin was.  
Of course, that was definitely easier said than done.

The two brothers made their way through the streets, unknown of where they were going or what exactly they were going to do to try and find anything that would help them.  
Wandering around wouldn't do much, Kite knew, but at this point it was their only option if they were going to figure out anything. And with their constant travel down and through the streets, they came upon Mito's own Bey Park that they never knew it had. Of course, the entire era that they lived in was the Beyblade Generation, started a long time ago with a history that was hard for a lot of people to make out.  
One thing was for sure, was that Gingka was one of the many people who had fought for it, as well as the other Legendary Bladers that were who-knows-where in the world.  
"Look, big bro!" Eight exclaimed, pointing inward towards the Bey Park to get his big brother's attention, "There's people battling each other!" Kite's gaze followed Eight's own, and there were - indeed - many kids battling each other fiercely in the standard Bey Stadiums that had come before the Cyclone Bey Stadiums ever had.  
Of course, there was a small near the end of the large Bey Park, from what the Unabara brothers could both see, kind of life back at Metal Bey where they held a Cyclone Bey Stadium that many people battled in quite often - after all, certain Beys could only battle in one or the other, and sometimes they could even battle in both, like Kira had been when he and Zyro had first fought each other.

Kite pushed his glasses up on his nose and watched intently from a distance at the much more incompetent bladers battled each other with their own Beys that were much weaker than his own - Leviathan and Orochi combined would crush them in an instant, and really wouldn't make it worth it as it might not be too much of a fight.  
Either way, Kite knew that they weren't here to Beybattle other people, not by a long shot. Their main priority was trying to find anything that could help lead them to Alcorin.  
But of course... What other way to get any information but from bladers such as themselves - after all, bladers just somehow understood each other, so Gingka had once said.

"Good job, Eight." Kite complimented, giving his brother a smile and a slightly raised eyebrow while the younger Unabara brother looked up towards the elder with a questioning look on his face.  
"What did I do?" The bluenette asked out of confusion, while Kite simply returned with a small smile and a flash of his glasses in the reflection of the light.  
"You just gave me idea of how we're going to find something." Kite explained vaguely. With those words said, both Unabara's made their way down the sidewalk and towards the entrance to the park - Kite, with his intelligence and his knack of predicting if he would successful or not, simply hoped that what he had planned would work...

* * *

"Hyoma, I'm sorry.."

"'Sorry', isn't going to fix anything, mom." Hyoma retorted to his mother, though tried not to sound as frustrated and confused as he actually was.  
He could hide it, sure, but there was no denying how exactly he was feeling right now - honestly, there was no way to identify what was going on inside of his head right now now that he had the information that he had wanted from his mother.  
He wasn't sure if he regretted it or not, but he knew one thing - he was both frustrated with her, and slightly disappointed. Even so, he didn't want to show disrespect to the woman that had birthed and raised him all of his life, had loved him unconditionally with no doubts about her love towards him. He loved her too, he really did, but it didn't stop him from not being a little angry with her.  
"I know, but you have to understand.." Isha begged, standing up from her place in the living room as her stood opposite her towards the hallway, "I didn't want that, I-I barely knew what was happening myself-"

"Maybe, but you could've done something." Hyoma said before she could finish her sentence, her light blue eyes narrowed slightly while staring in crystalline ones that nearly mirrored his own, the beautiful color that they usually were now strangely dimmed from the tears that rimmed his mother eyes unwittingly, "You could've spoken up and said something instead of just letting it happen."  
Isha, tears filling her eyes and some usually rolling down her red cheeks, breathed in a light sob as she tried to speak without breaking down - but seeing her own son that she loved so dearly be this angry with her made that unbearably hard.  
He didn't need to speak to show his disappointment and frustration with her; his eyes said it all.  
She had looked into those young eyes for years, able to read them like a book and almost always able to see what emotions lay behind them - and right now was definitely no different.

"I know I could've, but..." The woman began, wiping at her eyes as she tried to gather herself enough to say the words.  
Hyoma had been taught to be patient, by the very woman that had honestly disappointed him with previous acts that he had not known about until this day.  
He waited for her to gather herself, just like he had through most of his life when she was working on something or needed to take care of somebody within their village and didn't have much time for him while her priorities were on other things; being a doctor wasn't an easy thing, and his mother was the only one in Koma village.  
He could be patient, but now that he knew what he did, he wasn't sure how long his patience could last.  
Isha, brushing part of her hair out of face, finally gathered herself up and tried to speak once more, "I could've said something, and I would've, but... It was their word against mine, and I... I-I can't just go against them.."  
Hyoma sighed, sucking on his bottom lip for a moment as he put one hand on the back of his neck to try and keep himself occupied.  
Tears threatened to come to his eyes as well, but he tried to keep them down for as long as he could - he was upset, he wouldn't deny that; he had to keep things steady with his mother first, and then he could cry when he wanted or needed to.

"I know..." He sighed irritably, his teeth grazing his bottom lip while another sigh escaped them, "None of us ever doubt the priests.. Nobody ever doubted Ryo, either..."  
Hyoma ran a black-gloved hand through his light violet hair, shaking his head as he was left with nothing to think, confused on what exactly he was supposed to believe, what he was supposed to think.  
Everything had just decided to come crashing down on him all at once when it could've been an easy, relaxing day just like it usually was in the Bey Village; he had just been looking to relive some old memories of his years with Gingka, not have to unwittingly guilt trip his mother by bringing back events from her past that he could tell she had wanted to forget.

"Hyoma, please..." Isha begged, a choked sob escaping her though as the tears rolled down her cheeks, her eyes red and puffy with sniffles and sobs that followed with no attempt to stop them, "I w-wanted to say something, I-I did, and I would've, but... I regretted never s-saying anything, and I _know_ I should have, and I'm sorry..."  
Her last words came out as nothing but a strangled whisper, swallowing by the anguish and regret that came flooding into her with no mercy in its' rampage.  
Muffled her silent whimpers, Isha sat down on the couch and covered her eyes with one hand, breathing shakily while her other hand rested clenched in her lap.  
Hyoma's breathing was slightly uneven as the sound of his mother's heart breaking reached his ears and bore into his skull with the words: 'She's you're mother'.

It was right; Isha was his mother.

She always had been, and no matter what she had done or failed to do in her past he would always love her - he could be mad, frustrated, and disappointed in this woman, but it never be forever.  
Looking over his shoulder and past his bangs, his light blue eyes landed on the weeping woman who's hair fell over her shoulders and her eyes helplessly, watching mournfully as she covered her eyes with her one hand and bit her bottom lip to try and keep her sobs from escaping, even though it didn't work.  
He couldn't take it anymore.  
Hyoma hurried over to his mother, sitting down beside her on the couch and wrapping his arms around her, gently pulling her into a hug as to let her head rest on his shoulder.

"It's alright, mom.." Hyoma said quietly, rubbing his mother's back as he let her cry against him, "I'm not mad at you.."  
Even if that was a lie, Isha couldn't bring herself to care anymore. She wrapped her arms around her son's shoulder, buried her face into his chest, and cried.  
She cried for all the years her mistakes had taken away the time of another, cried for how many years she spent regretting never saying a word on that fateful day so many years ago - but there was no way that she could back and fix everything she had done.  
Hyoma had been mad that she had kept all of that a secret for so many years, that many people in the village had, but right at this moment was the time that he didn't have the strength to care.  
His mother was a good woman, and he let her know by the soft nothings that he whispered to her in a delicate moment only between mother and son.

Between them, there was never anything to forgive.


	10. Chapter 9 - The Raven

Chapter 9 - The Raven

* * *

Both Takanosuke's and Sakyo's game of I-Spy did not go on for long, as Sakyo was blatantly not as enthusiastic about it was Takanosuke was; even when he was kid, he hadn't been much of a 'people person'.  
He always kept to himself, mainly, save for the small group of friends that he had had once and had occasionally hung out with - needless to say, his friendships didn't last forever.  
Both of them had set out earlier that day and had made some good progress with getting closer to their destination of Ibaraki.  
Metal Bey City had gone from their sight, and much of the day had already passed as they came across Lake Hinuma, which Takanosuke had said he used to go to with his dad when his mom was still around - he hadn't said anything more than that though. Both of them had their eyes set on the darkening sky, the sound of the ocean long gone from their line of earshot while gold, pink, and orange streaked the progressively darkening sky as night began to set in to the warming summer day.  
Even at night it was warm, so neither of them were too concerned about having to keep warm at night.  
Though once they found a place to rest for the night, they would make a fire as to banish the darkness till morning where the light would shine earlier than it did in the winter.  
Takanosuke suggested that they stray off the roadside a bit on the outside of Agake and head down towards Lake Hinuma so that could camp by the water, which he apparently hadn't done in a long time for a reason that he didn't explain - ruefully, Sakyo said nothing about it, which was a silent agreement that they would do so, much to Takanosuke's delight. Both of them had decided to settle by the Western most point of the lake where they were closest to Ibaraki.

The tall trees that surrounded them by the water made it seem darker than it was as they cast their shadows upon them, the last rays of sunlight streaking across the midnight blue sky while the stars delicately dotted the sheet of night blue like carefully placed glitter.  
Both of them had gathered a fair amount of kindling before lighting their source of light and warmth with two stones - Takanosuke had said that his dad had taught him that a long time ago when they used to go camping.  
The slight chill night air was not a worry to either of them as it nipped at the few bits of exposed skin they both had on their hands, necks, and faces, the shadows of the treetops trying to hide the crescent moon from view as they both sat in the comfort on the small grove-like clearing that they had found for themselves.  
There was silence between both of them, Takanosuke flashing his eyes towards the Dragoon Blader every now and then with the desire to start some sort of conversation that would break the initial awkwardness between them, but hesitating every time and backing down before he felt the need to try again; Sakyo didn't seem to notice this, and even if he did, he didn't show it as he stared into the flames that burned brightly in front of them both, his expression blank as if deep in thought.  
Cerulean eyes followed his gaze into the flames every once in awhile, their beauty of light fascinating but with nothing seemingly special about them; Takanosuke was honestly unsure if he should break Sakyo's train of thought or not, then questioning himself on what exactly the older could be thinking - of course, he wasn't a mind reader.

He had weird dreams and saw weird images in his head sometimes, but he wasn't exactly what he was supposed to get out of those.  
His grandma had been a Seer before she passed away, yes, but he hadn't exactly thought it likely that he would inherit such a gift; she had said that, maybe if he was lucky, he would find that he had the gift of Foresight too, but he hadn't been able to really bring to himself to believe that.  
Of course, it was different now, with the things that he kept constantly seeing when he was asleep and when he sometimes closed his eyes in an absent consciousness.  
He would've been scared, if he hadn't remembered that his grandmother had indeed had the gift of being a Seer - but whether the things he saw and heard were true or yet to yet to come to pass was still a wary subject with him; they had not only been confusing, but frightening as well.  
The silence between the two of them was now almost unbearable to Takanosuke, even though he knew that Sakyo wasn't really the most friendly of people - it wasn't long before he finally decided to break the silence with whatever he could come up with first.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" The blonde asked, as it was the first thing that he could think of to say - either way, he was curious about what Sakyo seemed so deep in thought about.  
Sakyo blinked once, his expression unchanging as he slowly looked over towards the Griffin Blader that had spoken, almost as if he had forgotten that he was there entirely.  
"It's nothing important.." The Dragoon Blader said simply, his crimson eyes glancing up towards the center of the trees at the cooing sound of an owl before looking away and back towards the flames in front of them.  
"Okay.." The other Blader responded awkwardly, sitting with his legs spread out in front of him and leaning back on his hands.  
His gaze followed that of Sakyo's once more back into the flames that burned brightly in front of them, providing them as their only light source other than the natural glow of the moon that the treetops were evidently trying to block.  
By the water, though, it was brighter as the light of the crescent moon dimly reflected off of the mirror-like surface.  
Letting out a breath through his nose, Takanosuke willed himself to try and start up a conversation again.  
"When I was a kid, my grandma used to say that looking into a fire was a way of Fortunetelling." The blond commented, the other blader's red eyes glancing over towards him at his words - he remembered what Takanosuke had told him a couple of weeks ago before they faced against that psychopath that they were now chasing after.  
He had claimed that his grandmother was a Seer, which he explained a bit and related it why he had fallen off the railing of the arena when Sakyo had been training with his Ronin Dragoon - the kid had sworn on his grandmother's grave that it wasn't because he was clumsy or because he had simply lost balance and slipped.  
Without a response, Takanosuke simply decided to continue.

"She said something about... Uh.. Representing something or another.." The blonde said, trying to recall the words he was looking for as he continued, "But anyway.. She did say that that the sparks that fly off into the air are actually souls.. In Aboriginal culture, when a member of the tribe died, they would take the body or whatever was left it or what symbolized the person and burn it, so that their soul could be free. I think she said that fire is somehow related to the Spirit World, or something.."  
Sakyo, though still slightly a small distance away from their plane of reality in which was the level of thought, listened intently to what Takanosuke was saying.  
He didn't say anything if response as the Griffin Blader evidently tried to keep some sort of conversation going as long as he could, but he did listen to what the other had to say - to Sakyo, it was almost awkward, as he would silently admit that he was never one of the most social of people; he wasn't socially awkward, but he was a little inexperienced when it came to 'mingling' with people outside of Beybattling.  
Also with the fact that it was somebody who's grandmother was a seer, and who may have inherited the ability, despite that they were 'friends'.

"I can't remember how she said that fire was a way for seeing the future or fortunetelling..." Takanosuke went on, "Maybe it works the same way as those weird crystal balls do!.. I don't know, I can't remember.." The only response Sakyo gave was a soft hum that was barely audible, yet drew Takanosuke's attention towards him at the small sound of what sounded like a response.  
"Did you say something?" The blonde asked with a wondering look on his face, cerulean eyes wide in an almost child-like way that didn't contradict his appearance.  
"No." Sakyo said in response, closing his eyes for a moment as he turned his head back towards the direction of the small fire that they had created, "You should get some sleep.. We have more walking to do in the morning.." Takanosuke sighed softly, before simply agreeing to Sakyo's suggestion - after all, he was older and likely wiser than him.  
But it wasn't like he wasn't responsible himself!  
"Okay.." The blonde said wearily, a yawn escaping him on cue as he worked to shift his position and lay down on the ground - which definitely wasn't very comfortable.  
Sakyo said nothing as his red eyes stared broodingly into the flames, listening to the sound of Takanosuke absently shifting on the ground near him as he tried to get comfortable.  
Red eyes widened once he felt a weight against his side, glancing down in solemn confusion to see a head of fluffy blond hair leaning against his side, its' owner's legs brought up and bent with the boy's arms tucked in between the space between his legs and his torso; Sakyo, though slightly confused at first, said nothing to object to this.

The ground probably wasn't that comfortable anyway.

The redhead sighed softly as he simply let the Griffin Blader sleep against him, feeling him relax upon being able to lean against him as a brother would.  
Sakyo's eyes went back towards the flames, eyes of ruby red deep in a brooding atmosphere that he let off as he nearly lost himself in his train of thought that would lead them to nowhere but a dead end at the borders of the mind.  
He had agreed to go after that psychopath - Alcorin, was his name? - only because Takanosuke had really wanted to; it was apart of the boy's personality, to care for his friends and be thoughtful of others and not just himself.  
It would definitely be interesting to see how all of this played out, considering how Zyro and his friends had gone after him as well on a manhunt that they were all separately taking part in.

Absently, the Dragoon Blader reached into one the pockets of his jacket that lay sprawled out on the ground him from its' length, taking hold of something small enough to fit into the palm of his hand and taking it out.  
He brought it out in front of him, opening his hand where a small, gold link chain dangled off the edge of it.  
A gold necklace of a cross, with a tiny man crucified to it that symbolized 2 different religions that we're namely the same thing.  
He always kept it with him, even through the rough battles and hard days that came and went with life, as a blessing of some sort to ease the mind; but even with his short beliefs, there was nothing that God would be able to protect any of them from this time...

* * *

The black wings of the raven glided their way through the air, its' beady black eyes looking forward at nothing yet knowing exactly where it needed to go.  
The sky was not dark, yet the usual light that was brought by the warmth of the summer sun did not shine as brightly as it used to in a world where nothing truly held color upon lifeless grey; the trees it flew high over were covered with leaves that were of a dull green color, the Evergreens forever holding their shade of a darker color from their everlasting beauty and lifespan.  
The rivers ran freely while the drops of water never stayed in one place, moving with each other as a unit like all the feathers that covered glossy black wings in their glory, animals eyeing the bird that flew alone with no flock, the bird that symbolized death and Ill Omen as it flew likely towards whatever mountains awaited it.  
A hollow croak escaped it's blackened beak, separating it from that of the crow that it could be mistaken for in the eyes of an amateur that knew nothing about birds - its' feathers blew by and fought against the wind that would often carry it, flapping them almost frantically to shoot itself more upwards than anything.  
It cared not where it went, but it went to where it was drawn to, where it knew it had to go, where it knew it had no choice but to go and deliver whatever it would bring with it.  
It slowed in its' descent, flapping its' wings and maneuvering its' small body to slow down in away that had been known throughout millennial upon birds of every kind that fly, its' black talons looping around the first thing that it could get a grip of.  
The black of its' talons and feathers stood out and yet blended perfectly with skin of pure white, free of pigmentation just like its' master's hair, white and black clothes that were not as pure as he was, with piercing red eyes that stood as the only color that he had to bare.  
Those eyes looked over at the raven that had landed on his outstretched and waiting finger, splayed delicately while lifting the sleeves of his robes only a couple inches off the ground from their length; a calm smile spread across his white lips, that when open would show to equally as white insides that was not natural for a human being - but of course, he was not human.

"Welcome back, my little birdie.." Alcorin cooed maliciously, bringing his outstretched hand that withheld the bird closer to him and gently rubbing it under its' beak with his opposite index finger, "I suggest you have something for me?.."  
The raven let out a hollowed croak, filled with nothing but emptiness but being the only way that it was able to speak, the natural way of being a bird.  
Its' beady black eyes stared blindly, blank of a liveliness that inhabited that of most living beings on this earth; of course, this bird was nothing but a puppet, quite literally.  
He could sneak into the mind and take control of practically anything that had a consciousness and used it to his advantage; the raven was no different than that of when he had taken full control of Hikaru.  
Several croaks were elicited from the throat of the raven that sat perched on Alcorin's snow white hand, the albino seeming to listen intently as he communicated with the raven through its' mind that he alone had control of - after all, he was pretty sure that he couldn't speak 'bird'.

"They come hunting for me..." Alcorin repeated out loud, his voice almost soft with the ghost of the small boy that had once existed as himself, his smile fading and his eyes lazily moving off towards the direction of the rest of the world and wilderness that he could see below and beyond, "I see... I would've expected as such, from the likes of them.. If I had known better, I wouldn't have even said a word to the little brat about his dear _friend_ being 'dead', but... His pain was too delicious to pass up."  
A soft giggle escaped his whiter lips, lithe digits gently, slowly, petting the feathers of the back of the mindless bird that he had taken for himself, white standing out upon black like the moon in a midnight black sky.  
"What do you think I should do with them, hm?.." Alcorin questioned, which was not retaliated with a response from the raven that had no mind of its' own, "You have no need to think about answering that.. I know _exactly_ how I'll handle them.."  
A small smirk made its' way upon Alcorin's lips, an almost thoughtful look on his pure white features highlighted by crimson red eyes that reflected no light.  
Once more, his expression faded into a solemn one as he stared out into the world beyond where he was, gazing far into the distance with eyes that almost appeared to see everything and yet nothing at all.  
"They will _not_ have him.." He hissed in a rather possessive way, "It amazes me they still have the strength to stand against me.. Or at least, they're trying to convince themselves that they do... But I've watched them, and I know _exactly_ how to crush them into nothing but dust.."  
A small giggle made its' way from his throat, his gaze turning back to the raven that sat perched on his index finger while silently and mindlessly waiting for any further instructions that it would be forced to carry out against the will it no longer had.

"I'll especially have fun with little Zyro.." Alcorin said dreamily, "Poor baby is already on the brink, with only that small little bit of willpower to keep him even relatively sane, as well as that _Kira_. How about... We toy with them?.. What better way than to drive them insane and make them believe that there really is no hope."  
A small escaped his lips, which the raven made no response to as it sat on his finger as still as a painted statue, the slightly cock of its' head every now and then being the only thing that proved it was still responsive - unlike his beloved brother.  
"Go." The albino commanded and threw the bird up in the air, the raven automatically flapping its' wings in response to remain in the air and blindly following orders to leave.  
Its' croak echoed through the air like a voice would in a canyon, a small giggle following the cry of the bird that he had taken life from.  
Everything had gone his way, just like he had planned it too - there had been flaws and several faults, yes, but he had still come out as the victor while he left others to suffer in his shadow.  
Now those 'others' were back on their feet with weary spirits, hunting him down to make him pay for everything that he did to them. Not if _he_ had anything to say about it.

"I warned you all, you know.." Alcorin said to nobody, his voice under-toned by another that sounded more demonic, something that made his voice sound like it was 2 people talking in perfect sync, "I gave you a chance to back off and leave yourselves to wallow in pity, and whatever I do to you now, you've brought upon yourselves.." Crimson eyes illuminated themselves, a darkness within them that came from the time he was born, as he was a being that came before his pathetic 'other half' did, "You can't have him..."  
With the whip of his robes in the soft breeze, Alcorin turned and left where he stood to the silence of the darkening days...

* * *

All of them had taken it upon themselves to use their separate methods to find something - anything - that could remotely help them in their search for Alcorin which almost seemed ongoing, despite it only being a couple of days.  
Much to their disappointment, Mito seemed to hold nothing useful for them as all attempts seemed to come down with nothing.  
Zyro and Kira, after their failed attempts at coming up with anything in the next few hours after their method of finding out anything, had found Kite and Eight at Mito's Bey Park, conversing with a few young bladers around their age who really didn't seem to be helping much.  
The Unabara brothers had quickly departed from the unknown bladers before they had gone up to Kira and Zyro, one of which they were actually happy to see.  
A bit of the day had passed now, heading onto about 3:00, as Kite had estimated through his previous study of sun positions when he was a little bit younger.  
The 4 of them were now walking together, conversing in mainly small talk with each other about their situation.

"How do you think the others are doing right now?" Zyro asked, looking over towards Kite who walked beside him with Eight, "Like, with finding anything, I mean."

"Probably better than us." Kira said, twisting his wrist off to the side, "That, or worse. This place his huge, I doubt any of us will find much." Kite glanced over at Kira with his blue eyes, a solemn look on his face towards the ex-DNA blader.  
"Well, if my estimations are correct, which they usually are.." Kite began, Kira rolling his eye at hearing this, "Then we have roughly a 45% chance of finding anything.. Which, with how things stand, is actually pretty good."  
Eight smiled rather proudly in response to this, being sure to keep close to his older brother as they headed down the sidewalk, getting several glances from passersby since they had been in the Neo Battle Bladers Tournament and weren't exactly indistinguishable faces.  
"Big bro is always right!" The small bluenette exclaimed while pumping a fist in the air - Zyro simply sweat-dropped at that while Kira said nothing in response.  
"Uh, yeah, sure.." The ginger-ravenette awkwardly agreed, looking forward once more to watch where he was going.  
"Be optimistic if you like.." Kira sighed, closing his one eye for a moment as it didn't make a difference with his sight, "You might as well be realistic and face the fact that he's probably on the other side of the world as we speak, since apparently teleportation is a thing of his." Zyro glanced over at him with sky blue eyes, the original fire in them still burning but the constant moisture around it that kept it small.

"Yeah, but we can hope.." The Fire Blader said in a way that almost sounded ironically hopeless.  
Kira opened his eye again and placed his gaze on the visibly withering flame - a metaphor, to be honest -, the boy seeming to just be able to stand with how much emotional damage he had taken within the time span of only a week back when they had first fought against Alcorin.  
Scoffing silently, the pastel-haired blader looked away as the rest of them casually conversed with each other; he had never been able to truly be 'casual' with anyone, considering how he had grown up and how he had turned out to be.  
He wasn't exactly the person that everybody liked, save for the other ex-DNA bladers who evidently looked up to him; however that had turned out once they had learned of his 'allegiance' with Zyro and his friends, he had no idea.  
"Hey, look!" Eight suddenly exclaimed, pointing somewhere down the street and gaining their attention, "It's Maru and Madoka! At one of those tables!"  
The 3 older bladers followed where the younger Unabara was pointing, which happened to be a cafe at the end of the street.  
At one of the tables were seated a familiar woman and child, one with pink hair and the other with brown hair sitting beside each other while they both appeared to be looking something over - it was evidently Madoka and Maru.  
"You think they found something?" Zyro asked, looking over towards Kite who returned his gaze.  
"Only one way to find out." A small smile was put onto Zyro's face, one that most of them would recognize as the old him that always had a certain spark.

"Madoka! Maru!" Zyro called out, their original walking pace turning that of a run as they all hurried towards the two girls in hopes that they had been able to find something.  
Madoka gasped softly at the sudden call of her and Maru's name from a familiar voice, turning her head to look in the direction from which it had come from - Maru, having heard as well, leaned over the table a bit by picking herself up with her arms and peered around Madoka a bit, seeing none other than Zyro, Kira, Kite, and Eight coming towards them from down the street.  
"Oh, hey!" Madoka greeted as the 4 came up to the 2 Mechanics, 3 of 4 actually coming in through the fence that cut off the outside of the cafe from the rest of the city - Kira, for some reason, stayed on the other side of the white fence while still being in earshot of the rest of them.  
"Me and Maru we just looking over something we found." Madoka continued, and Maru brought something up on her bracelet once more that came up as none other than a holographic screen.  
"What did you find?" Kite asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose as they tried to slide down.  
"It's from a book that we found in one of the libraries around here." Madoka explained, "It's probably not the most helpful thing we could find, but it's the best thing to a lead that we have.."

"And do you happen to have the book with you?" Kira asked, having one hand out in front of him as if he were looking over his nails - which he did sometimes do.  
"Uhh... No." Madoka answered lamely, which Kira raised his one eyebrow to before she spoke again, "Since we aren't going to be here for long, it probably wasn't exactly the smartest thing to get a book and not return it, since we won't be coming back... So we took a few pictures of the pages instead."  
Maru gave off a smile, lifting her wrist a bit as to show their point.  
"This thing also has a camera built into it." The pinkette said with a smile, "And it takes pretty clear ones, too." Madoka smiled at her student, a small giggle on her tongue with a small bit of joy that Maru was still able to smile - the tear tracks on her cheeks had faded, but were still just barely apparent.  
Kite, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow at the pastel-haired blader, eyeing the weird distance between him and then as he still stood on the sidewalk.  
"Why are you on the other side of the fence?" The brunette asked, raising his eyebrows a bit.

"I don't like cafes." Kira stated bluntly in a way that said 'I rest my case'.

Kite simply shook his head a bit and turned back to looking at Madoka as Zyro spoke, "What did it say?"

"Well, I say we find Benkei, Ren, and Shinobu first.." Madoka said as she stood up from where she was sitting, the legs of the chair screeching against the stone floor and causing several of them to flinch while people farther away turned their heads at the noise before going back to their regular business.  
"That way..." Madoka continued, tucking a piece of hair behind her non-visible ears that were hidden behind her hair and recovering from the screeching noise ringing in her ears, "We won't have to explain anything twice. Sound good?"

"Yeah." Zyro agreed, which Kite simply nodded to along with Eight. Maru hopped out of her chair and put the holographic screen protruding from her bracelet back into its' rightful place.  
"Goodie.." Kira said sardonically, "We get to go on a search for our little 'friends'." The way he said 'friends' was bitter, but they all knew that pretty well of Kira. He made it blatant that he didn't like most of them, which was confusing to a few as why he would come along with them considering that he didn't like them.  
Of course, only Zyro really knew why - Kira had claimed that he still had a favor to return to him, after all.  
"I say we're making pretty good time." Madoka said, glancing up towards the sun as she gently placed a tip onto the table for one of the waitresses to pick up, "It's only about 3:00, so we're not doing to bad.. They're around here somewhere."  
Pulling her shirt down, Madoka nodded to them which signaled their leave.  
Kite, Eight, and Zyro followed both Madoka and Maru out of the cafe, with Kira joining up with them from being on the other side of the fence.  
"Did any of you get anything?" Maru asked, looking back towards the 4 others that had found them. "Not a thing." Kite answered, once more pushing his glasses up on his nose which made the lens' reflect the light of the sun off of them.  
Zyro, who was in between Kite, Eight, and Kira, smiled slightly as the initial awkwardness between most of them seemed to be clearing - they were all friends, of course, but after what happened when they hadn't believed him right away had left a small rift; thankfully, it seemed to be healing.

Forgive and forget, as the saying went.

A strangled croak reached his ears, startling him away from his thoughts and stopping him in his tracks - he knew that sound.  
His breath seemed frozen even in the warm summer air, his heart suddenly beating madly against his chest so hard that it heart before it cooled down.  
He wasn't scared, he wasn't nervous, he wasn't anxious... Or maybe that was what he was trying to convince himself.  
Slowly, Zyro looked up towards from where he had heard the familiar noise, his eyes landing upon the fence that separated them from the outside area of the cafe.

A raven.

Perched on the top of the wood, black standing out upon white, feathers the same color as most of his hair.  
A raven in all its' glory, its' beady black eyes staring at him as it cocked its' head in the strangest way.  
Zyro's heart beat against his chest like it wanted to escape, his rib cage being all that kept it inside his best like a wild beast kept captive in a circus.  
Raven's symbolized death - he knew this, as he had done a Powerpoint on them once for a school project. They were sharper than the crow, more cold and stronger with its' deep croaks that came from within its' throat and down from centuries of bird-kind.  
There was only one time when he would ever see ravens. In those dreams that he had stopped having when he was 8 years old, before the Nemesis Crisis.  
In the one that he had had just before Gingka had fallen into his coma - just before he spoke his last words to them.  
They had always been there in his dreams when he was young, croaking and crying out as if in mourning over something unidentified.  
All the warnings of something bad to come, all the signs and symbolism that something bad was about to happen or would happen in the near or somewhat far future.  
They were always there with that boy that he never saw the face of, the very same that had been like an imaginary friend through his childhood only to vanish and emerge once again in his youth.  
And from those dreams, Zyro knew that ravens never brought anything good - especially not ones with as dead of eyes as this one bore.

They were birds of Ill Omen; and for Zyro they never brought any good tidings.


	11. Chapter 10 - Risk

Chapter 10 - Risk

* * *

Tsubasa didn't like cemeteries.

He had never had many problems with them, despite all those horror movies trying to make them seem scary - to him, those had always just seemed like cheap tricks to get kids scared of ever visiting grandma and grandpa's graves in fear of being grabbed by the ankle and pulled down under to join the dead.  
Sure, the concept of it was pretty freaky but it was all just scary campfire stories in the end. If only that's what all of this could've been.  
It was only after the ordeal with Alcorin, and the memorials and funerals of Dynamis and Hikaru did he grow uneasy of them - and dare he said frightened from the aura of their vague presence being there.  
Well, it was mainly only Hikaru, as Dynamis' body was namely back at the Mist Mountain Shrine where he had been killed by Alcorin, according to Maru.  
Graveyards had never frightened or had managed unease him before now, knowing that one of his closest friends was now buried there from a suicide that meant nothing in the end.  
Now, as he walked past the gate that separated the spirits from the rest of the world, that divided the dead and the living, he couldn't help the shiver that went up his spine at the coldness that blew through the burial area of so many people.

He had never really had any reason to go to cemeteries until about a week ago when they had held Hikaru's funeral and had a small memorial for Dynamis as respect; he had honestly blamed himself for what happened with Hikaru.  
He knew that she had been acting a little strange, which was even noticed by her co-workers who had said that she had been seeming a bit 'off', which included disappearing sometimes before showing up the next moment after as if she had been there the whole time.  
He had known Hikaru for years just as he had known Madoka, Gingka, and Benkei.  
She had been his assistant since Ryo had retired from being the Director and had supposedly gone back to Koma Village, working mainly side by side with each other along with Madoka in their work of constructing the Beyblade era that Gingka had made possible in the first place.  
They had all been very close with each other through the years considering there was only the 4 of them while the remainder of their friends had gone off into other parts of the world.  
He should've noticed something... Maybe if he had, Hikaru would still be alive.  
Apparently, she had given her life in the first place to save both Gingka and Ren from being in Alcorin's hands, leaving everything behind so that Gingka could be saved. All of that, though, had been in vain as they recently learned that the 'Gingka' they had been with throughout the week, hadn't even been him.  
Now that it came to mind, it was the only thing that truly made sense in a world where everything now seemed to be fake.  
The reality that they lived him hardly seemed real anymore as the world had seemed to turn grey, the days slowly turning into night at the ever growing darkness around them that Alcorin wanted.  
Standing at Hikaru's grave didn't help, making everything seem a dream as he looked at the tombstone that bore her name upon it, as well as her date of birth and her date of death.

Personally, he thought the years that it showed were too close to each other.

Tsubasa let out a soft sigh, the warm air of the summer seeping through his clothing but thankfully not trapping it in, leaving him relatively cool along with the small breeze that did no good for the shivers that traveled up and down his spine.  
Flowers of new and old were placed at the headstone, some already dead and shriveled up, and some on their way to the same fate. Just like life, really.  
It was a really deep thought to get into - Tsubasa had tried - but it was very well the truth, as all living things were born, went through life, and then died.  
Some sooner than others, like Hikaru and Dynamis.

And Gingka.

Eyes half-lidded, Tsubasa crossed his arms with a calm look, the warm air almost stiffling from the summer sun yet thankfully muted by the clouded sky that still allowed the sun to poke through.  
However, most things now seemed monochrome in his eyes, the scars of everything they had gone through embedded into their hearts and souls, healing, but forever there.  
The silvernette shook his head, sighing once more through his nose and breaking the deadly silence but for the sound of cars driving by.  
"Why did it have to be you, Hikaru?" The Director asked no one, the goosebumps on his arms having no hope of going away from the aura that surrounded him from the dead that lingered.  
He could only wonder if one of them were Hikaru, if she could hear everything that he was saying right now.  
Probably not.  
"I probably should've noticed that something was going on with you..." Tsubasa continued, speaking to no one but the headstone that stood in front of him, surrounded by other graves of people that he did not know, "I'll admit, you're a pretty good actor, but... I should've been more suspicious when Sichiro and others thought you were acting weird..." Another sigh escaped through his lips, the air around him fairly warm but with a certain chill that almost seemed to make his breath freeze, "...I guess it wouldn't have made much of a difference, would it?"  
Of course, there was no reply. Headstones couldn't talk, after all, and he wasn't capable of communicating with spirits like those Mediums supposedly were; he honestly didn't really believe in that, but he did find the concept of it quite interesting.  
Though wherever Hikaru's spirit was now, he prayed to the far off gods that she wasn't in pain - after all, maybe she had done what she had because she wanted to.  
Maybe it hadn't been Alcorin's choice to make her do so, and entirely her own, leaving her without regrets or doubts on her life and setting her free.  
But then again, maybe not... Tsubasa never would have guessed that sending Hikaru to the B-Pit to fetch the others and having her stay there to watch Gingka while he had been comatose would be the last remote interaction that he would have with her.  
Of course, he had told Sichiro at that time to do it for him, and the other had done as he was told - in truth, Sichiro was one of the last to see Hikaru alive.  
And he must've been just as horrified by the revelation of her death as he was; being two of Tsubasa's most trusted assistants and workers, they had worked together often.  
Sichiro was now in Tokyo, though, with Ayano, helping to gather anything that they could that could lead them even remotely to Alcorin - of course, the point of it was mainly to get anything that was related to the psychopath, to profile as many as they could and see if they could find any remote connection.  
Of course, everything he had gotten had proved negative so far; he wondered how Zyro, Madoka, and the others were doing at this point. There was no doubt they were still in Mito, but what exactly they were doing to find anything was beyond him.

"You were really a great friend, Hikaru.." Tsubasa spoke, his voice vanishing off into the nothingness that left chills and goosebumps, "Really, you were... You may have not been really trying to help us, because of Alcorin, but... I don't blame you. You didn't ask to be his... _Puppet_.. In the first place. I just wish it hadn't had to end this way..."

Of course, they all wished that.

They wished that none of this had happened.

They wished that it had all just been a bad dream, that Dynamis and Hikaru were still alive and Alcorin had truly been defeated in the final battle that they had had with him, following in the footsteps of his deity father from 7 years prior.  
They had all wished that everything had gone the way that it usually had - a new threat had showed up, they had to fight against it, they did so with some struggles, but out victorious in the end. That was mainly how all those cliche storybooks went.  
But life was not a storybook, and there were no real happy endings - even when it seemed there were, they wouldn't last long in a world where it was hard to be happy and very easy to be sad, where people died and didn't magically come back from the dead like some stories depicted falsely.  
The world was a very cruel place, that much was painfully obvious.  
A small ringing sound snapped Tsubasa out of his thoughts, confusing him for a moment before he realized that it was coming from his pocket.  
Reaching in, Tsubasa brought out his phone and looked at the screen to identify who was calling him - the WBBA headquarters itself.  
Sliding his finger across the bottom of the screen, Tsubasa put his phone to his ear and answered.

"Hello?" He asked, waiting for a reply.  
"Hello, Director." Greeted a female voice from the opposite line, undoubtedly one of the many people that worked for him in the organization, "You have a call waiting for you in your office, someone who says that they knew you quite well. He says that he's a friend of yours, so I put him on hold for you." Tsubasa's eyebrows furrowed for a moment - could it be one of the surround WBBA Directors? He wasn't expecting anyone to be getting in contact with him as of right now, and since he had already settled most things with the other Directors, he didn't suppose that any of them would have anything further to discuss.  
"Did he give a name?" The silverette questioned, growing suspicious of this supposedly anonymous call.  
"Yes.." The woman on the other end responded, followed by a faint sound of what Tsubasa guessed to be the typing of a keyboard, "Umm.. Kyoya Tategami."  
Tsubasa's eyes widened at the name spoken by the worker on the other end, a title that he had not heard in quite a while and who he had also not spoken with for a couple years. Of course, he knew where Kyoya was, as he knew where all of the Legendary Bladers and their friends were since he had shown Zyro and Shinobu when they had first come to the WBBA headquarters.  
Kyoya was somewhere in Africa, namely the CEO of some sort of organization that was well associated with the WBBA. Even so, the two of them didn't usually correspond with each other, which resulted a long rest period in their correspondence.  
Whether or not Kyoya was in contact with any of the other WBBA corporations in Japan, Tsubasa had no idea, but seeing as how the two of their organizations were most certainly connected through the Beyblade Generation, it was highly likely.  
Struggling for a moment to find his voice out of surprise, Tsubasa responded back to the woman with, "Alright, thank you.. Keep him on hold, and I'll speak with him as soon as I get there."

"Yes, Director." The other across the line said obediently, before hanging up and giving Tsubasa the cue to put his phone back in his pocket.  
What could Kyoya possibly want right now?  
Sighing once more, Tsubasa's golden eyes looked upon Hikaru's gravestone once more, the warm air subdued by the chill that the graveyard seemed to almost naturally give off from the presence of the dead that rested and lingered.  
It should have never been anyone, especially with her.  
With heavy weights lain on his shoulders, Tsubasa left the cemetery and once more left the dead to rest...

* * *

"Well, that's half of the lot.." Ayano sighed, leaning back in the swivel chair and breathing out a sigh of exhaustion from profiling at least half of the Tokyo WBBA's staff.  
They still had half to go, and according to the clock the sun should be rising at about this time - her and Sichiro had arrived in Tokyo at the WBBA building very early in the morning, perhaps roughly 4:00am or so, and both of them likely hadn't gotten much sleep on the way there.  
Least of all, Sichiro, from his blatant anxiety of being there at all.  
Said raven-haired man was leaning against the table that Ayano was currently working on with the computer system, having grown a bit tired from standing the whole time and taking it upon himself to lean against something and give his legs a bit of a rest.  
Even so, his steel grey eyes were barely wide with the nervousness that settled in his aura, appearing to bit his lip and the inside of his cheek continuously as the uneasiness through him refused to fade.  
Of course, there was no way he was going to calm down until they left this accursed building that he had never wanted to come to, thoughts filling his head and only fueling the desire to leave even further.  
Even as his posture remained rigid, as he strummed his fingers against the edge of the table as some sort of comfort to just _feel_ , as his steel grey orbs stared at the wall that stood opposite him with the door with the hair on the back of his neck standing up with an icy chill down his spine, he said not a word.  
He knew that he had to try and seem calm, if only just for awhile to not make Ayano worry about him and start pressuring him into speaking about something that he wanted to leave buried in the history that nobody knew about.  
He would never say that he objected or disagreed with the Director's judgement, but this was the one time that he had truly wanted to say no and leave it at that - but he knew that he wouldn't be able to do that without questions arising and answers coming to light, so he had been forced between a rock and hard place with no hope of escape.  
Endure and swallow it.  
That was what he had taught himself to do for a long time, and he had to do the same thing now - only this time he wasn't entirely sure how long he would hold out for with the eyes that seemed to stare in the back of his head, the side of him, from everywhere with no hopes of being able to crawl into the corner and hide.

He had heard Ayano's words of getting half of the profiling they needed done ( _..was it really half?..._ ) and looked over at her as she leaned back in the swivel chair that had been there and ready for her to work on when they had arrived.  
Director Hideyoshi seemingly knew Ayano quite well, as she namely had been there several times in previous missions that she had been given by the Director for several different purposes, as well as being other places for different matters than this one.  
"I don't think I ever realized how long profiling can actually take.." Ayano continued, sighing once more as she tilted her head back and gazed up towards the ceiling lazily, where the lights had stopped flickering by now and seemed to have no intention of doing so again - perhaps they had fixed whatever was wrong with their power, suggesting that something had been out of line with it, "I swear, once we get back to Metal Bey, I am going to use my day off sitting in bed and reading a book with my cat... He must be one hungry kitty by now.."  
Sichiro stifled a small chuckle at that. While Ayano was definitely obedient and hard-working with a 'no-nonsense' attitude, she definitely seemed quite lazy when it came to her day offs that she got to spend at home with her cat - Bemu, he believed the little feline's name was.

"Yeah..." Sichiro replied solemnly, tapping his left index finger on the surface of the table anxiously, looking up towards the computer system that Ayano had in front of her that consisted of many screens supported by one another - of course Tokyo had the best technology out of all places.  
Only halfway done, and still with half to go... How long had they even been there? It had likely been hours but it may as well have been an eternity to him.  
How much longer would it take to get the rest done?  
At this point, he didn't even care about how off everything seem, how off he _knew_ everything was, he just wanted to leave but he knew that they couldn't until they got their work done. He was always more than happy to follow their Director's demands, but this was the one time that he had truly wished to firmly say no and leave it at that.

"Well, we won't get anywhere if we don't get it done.." Ayano said, sitting up properly in her chair once more and grabbing the Tablet that lay to the side.  
Reaching to the side of the computer, the greenette took hold of a USB chip that was inserted into the side with a blue light shining near the end. Pulling it out, Ayano inserted the USB into the bottom of the tablet to transport the data that she had gotten into the portable device.  
"I'll send these to Tsubasa.." She stated, standing up from her seat and turning towards him a bit, "I'll put this here to stay with you until it sends.. I have something I need to ask the Director. You won't mind me leaving for a few minutes, will you?"  
Sichiro's eyes widened slightly, standing up properly and plastering a smile of understanding onto his face.  
"Of course not..." He said softly, "G-go ahead.. I'll be fine." Flashing him a hint of a concerned look behind her smile of appreciation, Ayano turned and headed for the doors, the silver wedging sliding open automatically upon her presence and allowing her out into the rest of the building before closing behind her all the same.  
This left Sichiro alone in nothing but silence, the mechanical echo of the doors sliding closed seeming to go on forever and bounce eternally off of the walls that surrounded him.  
The smile of understanding faded from his dreadfully pale face, releasing a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding in the first place as sweat dotted his forehead; whether from anxiety or the heat, he didn't know.  
He didn't trust Ayano with that man, but she was more superior than he was was, and she was definitely strong (he had learned for himself when she had accidentally bruised his wrist once when trying to get a point across to him, and another time when she had been hell bent on having that candy bar from the vending machine and refusing to take anyone's bull about it) and could handle herself alright.  
She'd be fine...

Wiping his forehead on his sleeve, Sichiro looked around the room for the first time since they had gotten there.  
There wasn't really much to it.  
It was rather large, and long going sideways from where he was standing, the grey-tinted table that held the computer system Ayano was working with stretching to nearly both ends of the room.  
There was no windows, nothing that allowed anyone to look through to the rest of the building, just plain metal walls with ceiling lights that lit it well.  
Even so, it didn't ease the feeling of being watched that settled on Sichiro's shoulders, making him nervous to even blink, to even move in fear that he would be accused of something because hidden cameras had caught it.  
Like the one in the corner of the ceiling and the wall for instance.  
Sichiro wasn't stupid - he would usually know when something was out of place or when something didn't seem to blend along with everything else; his eyes couldn't see everything, of course, but he... Knew certain things, to say the least.  
The raven bit his lip, the skin now raw and bloodshot, now almost ready to burst open and allow the blood running through his veins to come flowing out in very small portions that could easily be slowed and halted.  
Steel grey eyes shifted around uneasily, the anxiety clenching in his chest and refusing to let him have a moment of peace - being here, in this building that he had wanted nothing more to stay away from as well as the city itself, his nerves would not let him calm down.

Of course, the past that came flooding back after so many years of making sure that it stayed secured and buried didn't help much with that either.  
Sichiro looked over at the computer system that still had the list of all the personnel in the building for them to scan and profile, while the tablet that Ayano had brought with her was currently sending all of the profiles that they had gathered back to the Metal Bey City WBBA building for Tsubasa to look over.  
The light on the USB chip was blinking blue, indicating that it was being deprived of its knowledge and sending into something else for it to claim as its own until it was once more filled with more of what they needed.  
The raven's eyes made their way over to the computer system again, the technology quite advanced that allowed it to consist of many screens, most of which were holographic, while it relied mainly on the single, standard keyboard placed on the desk in front of the chair that Ayano had been in.

 _"They couldn't possibly have anything on him... Could they?.."_ Sichiro wondered in his thoughts, his mind wondering to another subject that made the history of the Tokyo WBBA less than clean, despite what people thought, _"I'm almost surprised they wouldn't have noticed.. But..."_  
The silence could have been deafening if it were a truly a sound, a ringing in his ears from the dreaded silence that surrounded him and counted down some unknown timer for an unknown purpose.  
Steel grey orbs once more wandered over to the small camera that lay in the far corner away from most eyes, cleverly hidden in a place where nobody really thought to look or even acknowledged because, well, it was just the corner of the ceiling, after all.  
The air was heavy with doubt, with secrets, and whispers that passed throughout this building that would soon be illuminated by the light of the sun peaking over the horizon, judging from the time.  
Sichiro would take his chances.  
He sat down in the chair that Ayano had been in, pulling himself up to the table with his back straight, glancing over once more at the still sending hard-rive before his eyes made their way back to the screen.  
Without the need for looking, his fingers typed away on the keyboard skillfully, setting aside the screen that contained their business into another and holographic one while he went through something else that he knew he had little time for.  
Curiosity killed the cat, as they say, but he would take his chances, just like he always had in a world as unforgiving and secretive as this one.  
Steel grey eyes widened as what he had been searching for was brought up, his suspicions being horrifically right despite usually hoping that they weren't - but on most occasions, including this one, they were.  
He leaned forward against the edge of the table, stabling himself as he looked away from the screen and nearly felt like vomiting.

He wasn't sure why, for it wasn't all that sick or bad, just a simple file...

But the thought of...

No...

He wouldn't think of that, not again...

But it was inevitable as memories from a time long ago came back to him, invading his mind and breaking down the barriers against everything his past contained.  
His body trembled at the memories, at the thoughts that raced through his head.  
The feeling of someone watching him almost seemed to fade, the air becoming less heavy but still thick with the secrets and the lies, the hairs on the back of his neck now resting and allowing some sort of relief to wash over him.  
But nothing could calm the storm that raged inside, the uneasiness that delved down into the pits of his stomach and make him want to turn up everything it contained, the anxiety that gripped and tore at his chest and trying to make him lose his nerve.  
But he couldn't, and he didn't.

He had practice, after all.

Sichiro glanced back towards the door behind him, every nerve in his body hyper-sensitive and making his fingers tremble from several different emotions that raced through him, his breathing ragged with the tightening in his chest that became nearly unbearable in the anxiety that he had developed over the years.  
The camera in the room was no longer watching him, he was sure, but he knew that there may have been a different pair of eyes, ones that did not seek to destroy him should he even dare to twitch.  
He'd already taken a big enough risk with doing what he was behind the backs of everyone, whether he trusted them or not - he had always been afraid of what they would do to him if he dare spoke a word, if he dared to bring up the long forgotten history that had remained buried for years.  
Subconsciously, his fingers acted on their own accord, reaching across the keyboard and pressing only one button that may or may not have been for the greater good.

'Delete'.

All that had been on the screen directly in front of him had disappeared, now gone because of the decision that he had instinctively made.  
Sichiro once more released a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding, a cold sweat running down his back and dotting his forehead of which he wiped away with his sleeve.  
He felt frozen, his entire body shaking and gripping the edge of the table as he stood up stiffly.  
His long black hair hung down the sides of his face, pouring down his back just past his shoulder blades, the color of that of a raven's feathers, that who symbolized death and were commonly used as messengers back in the Medieval ages.  
Even now, he lived as nothing more than a messenger, in more ways than one.  
With shaking hands, he brought the list of personnel for profiling back onto the main screen in front of the chair that he had originally sat in, scooting himself over stiffly down the table that he leaned against.

Calm yourself...

You don't have to worry...

Everything will be fine, they would never know...  
After all, he had made sure of that.  
Or at least, he hoped he had.

The lights on the ceiling flickered once more...

* * *

The group of 6, consisting of Madoka, Zyro, Maru, Kira, Kite, and Eight, had managed to find Benkei, Shinobu, and Ren within about 2 hours, all 3 of them having been near Sakasagawa Ryokuchi Park, just south of Senba Lake, where many citizens of the large city had come to spend their day, whether a simple jog or walk with their dogs, to spend time with their loves or simply to hang out with their friends in a game of Frisbee that they would soon tire from.  
The 9 of them had decided to seat themselves in a gazebo off the main path that lead through the park, the shade that it brought refreshing and cooling though not truly dimming the warm air that was brought by the summer.  
All of them sat on the one long seat that wrapped around the circular landing, Kira sitting at one end and even about a foot and a half away from Zyro, who sat beside Ren in the cooling shade that this small luxury brought.  
Even with such important matters as these, he still wished to remain as distant as possible while still being involved in what was happening, but with no real connection to anyone.  
Either way, it seemed he was closest to Zyro out of all of them, which was rather surprising - though, the Fire Blader _had_ saved his life, without any true reason other than saying that he did not deserve it.

"So, I'm gonna guess you two were more successful than most of us?" Ren questioned, eyeing both Madoka and Maru and leaning forward, her elbows on her knees and her chin in her palms.  
"Sort of.." Madoka said tiredly, looking over at her young student he was working on bringing up the pictures she had taken from the library she and Madoka had searched through.  
Tsubasa and whoever he had been working with had definitely thought a lot of things over when they had made this thing.  
"Me and Maru went to a local library somewhere around here." Madoka continued, "We managed to find something in a book that might be useful, so we took a few pictures of the pages.."

"Here we go!" Maru exclaimed, tapping one of the minimized pictures and making it take up the whole screen for them to see better, the brunette leaning over slightly to get a better look as she continued on.  
"Apparently, there were actually a lot of people that worshiped Nemesis, mainly dating back to before the common era." The former mechanic went on, "It was... Kind of like several cults, almost. It said right here-" She pointed a slender finger to one spot on the screen, "-that many people looked down on those who worshiped the God of Destruction, which definitely didn't change through the years after that.."

"So there were a few dozen cults that worshiped Nemesis?.." Shinobu questioned, raising an eyebrow slightly before looking absently across the gazebo they sat in, "That would make some sense.." Madoka nodded, bringing a finger up to her chin and tapping just below her lip as if in thought.  
"You'd almost think it'd be respected like most other religions.." She said thoughtfully, "But I think it says somewhere that it was because Nemesis was one of the more hateful gods, seeing as how he did try to destroy the world 7 years ago... But, that's not the important part. Maru, can you change it?" Said pinkette nodded, sliding over to the next picture that she had taken with her bracelet that was crystal clear to read and see.  
"What it says over here-" Madoka put her finger just above the holographic screen near the bottom, "-is that many shrines and temples dedicated to Nemesis were actually created by those who worshiped him.. A lot of them were demolished and they just fell apart over the years, but it says that most were built in Japan. After a few hundred years or something, Japan basically became the rightful ground for Nemesis' followers, even though we do have a lot of other religions around here.."

"Does it say where any of them were built?" Benkei asked, leaning over slightly and looking at the screen from a sideways angle.  
"I'm getting to that." Madoka said patiently, turquoise orbs moving back to what Maru had up for her to see, the girl now holding her right arm up with support from the other, "Apparently, most temples were built deep in woodland areas, where there was more.. Solitude, or something like that. Some were even built inside of mountains, but whether or not they're even still there is something that nobody really knows.. There's actually a few still around that people know about, but not too many, since others were destroyed."  
Kite, listening intently, took the moment of silence as a chance to speak.  
"So what you're saying, is that we should be looking more towards the mountains.." The Leviathan Blader speculated, pushing his glasses up on his nose that faintly caught the light of the shaded out sun, "Quite clever."

"Yeah, but he might not be anywhere near mountains, for all we know." Ren said as she looked over towards the spiked-haired blader, "'Cause, we weren't exactly the quickest at figuring out he was directly below us before..."

"Which isn't surprising..." Kira muttered, rolling his eye - of course they hadn't, considering the states that all of them were in that he had once seen as pathetic.  
For some reason, that point of view had lowered down to: reasonable.  
Zyro simply looked over at him with relatively nothing to show on his face, before turning his blue-eyed gaze back to Madoka.  
"It'd be the best shot we have, right?" The Fire Blader questioned, "Even though there are a ton of mountains in Japan." Madoka nodded, letting Maru switch over to the next and final picture that she had taken, looking at what the screen had to offer with wandering turquoise orbs.  
"True, but that's all that we have to go on." The brunette concluded, looking up from the screen that Maru was holding up and to most of them, "It would take forever to hike through every mountain in Japan, though.." Benkei simply grinned at the factual statement.  
"I wouldn't mind." He said, "I could lose a couple of pounds anyway." Most of them sweat-dropped, Maru looking over at the big man with an expression that said she didn't quite know what to make of that.  
"Y-you look fine, Manager, really..." The pinkette stammered, a small awkward laugh coming from her lips.  
"Do we _really_ have to walk through all those mountains?" Eight asked, a hint of a complaint on his lips as he looked up towards his elder brother.  
"Not _all_ of them, Eight." The spikey-haired brunette responded, "But maybe a few.." Madoka leaned back in her seat a bit, her legs crossed and one arm folded across her chest while the other was lifted up to her chin in thought.

"Well, mountains are the best thing that we have right now.." She speculated, "Which means that we have to go more inland anyway. I say we head to Kasama after we're done here. It's close, and I think it's also near mountains."

"It is..." Kira said bluntly, his legs and arms crossed with his one eye closed.  
"How would you know?" Shinobu asked, though there was more curiosity in his voice towards Kira rather than bitterness, which was pleasant for the time being.  
"I just do." The pastel-haired blader replied, opening his golden eye and glancing over at the Salamander Blader with a calm expression. Shinobu said nothing in response.  
"Yeah..." Ren said awkwardly, extending the word a bit, "Well, we've got something, anyway." Madoka hummed as a sign of agreement with the energetic blonde.  
"I guess.." The brunette said with a small sigh, "Either way, I think we should figure out where we're going to be sleeping for tonight."

"Again, we should go to the first hotel in the phone book." Ren suggested, which earned a sweatdrop from Kite at the reference to that one on-going show that they both apparently watched.  
Madoka chuckled slightly before standing up, finally able to stretch her legs from sitting down just like back home when she had sat down with Maru and helped her with her Bey-fixing in times that were more peaceful than these.  
"That depends on what hotel will actually house 9 people, unless we're all up for having separate rooms." Madoka said with a smile, everyone else standing up as well with the warmth of the day slowly fading with the time, which was now just have dinner-time so the clock on Maru's bracelet told them.  
They definitely needed to figure out where they were going to stay for the night.  
A hotel would probably work, seeing as her and Benkei were two adults with a bunch of a teenagers and 2 small children under the age of 10 - they could indeed probably go half and half if they did decide that a hotel was the best option.  
She was going to need a shower soon, anyway.

"Let's get going." The brunette suggested, which everyone was able to agree to in their weariness and the need for some sleep later that night; the only one who didn't admit to this was Kira.  
The sun was slowly setting in the West, beginning to disappear behind the buildings of Mito that were great, but did not compare to that of Metal Bey as they all knew.  
The wind was weak now, the sky slowly darkening as night began to rule the day and let it rest. As all of them exited the gazebo that they had originally rested in to speak of what they had or had not found, they found the air had cooled as the day seemed to be turning into night quicker than it usually did in the summer, the light usually lasting well until perhaps 7:00 or 8:00 before it truly got dark, but that was not the case this time.  
Madoka looked up towards the clouds that coated the sky, the stars already beginning to peek out from behind the agglomerates of water and the moon starting to come out from its hiding place in the light of day and illuminated by the darkness of the oncoming night.  
It was unusual for the summer, but it brought back memories that remained long in the past that she kept holding onto with the last strings of her heart, the breeze of the coming cold brushing her brown hair against her cheeks.  
Her eyes half-lidded, turquoise orbs dimmed with the thin sheet of sorrow and anguish that filled her being to the brim - not to the point of tears, but to point where it told her that she had to do something about it.  
It fueled an anger in her that she held only towards Alcorin, the son of a god without mercy that seemed to follow in his footsteps in every way, but she never allowed it to go beyond the point that it was at, for it wasn't able to.  
Her sorrow for Gingka was even greater, the very line that held back her anger and kept it low, but still fierce.

 _"Gingka..."_ She thought to herself, her expression blank as the wind blew away her tears into the breeze, the light of the moon reflecting off of the drops of salt water and illuminating them for a split moment before they disappeared, _"I'm so sorry... We'll get him, I promise you..."_  
She often wondered how many promises humankind was able to keep. Not many, and it left others brokenhearted and distrusting towards others.  
Just like Zyro...

"Hey, Chief!" Maru called out, grabbing Madoka's attention and pulling her away from her thoughts that had, for a moment, taken her away from reality.  
It was almost rather relaxing, while it had lasted.  
The brunette's eyes widened, her turquoise orbs moving over to the remaining 8 of the group that was now waiting on her patiently.  
"Sorry!.." Madoka replied apologetically, and went to catch up with the rest of them to make plans of what they would be doing for any sort of place to rest in the early-coming night.  
A raven croaked somewhere off in the distance, reaching their ears but only really reaching Zyro...

* * *

Once more, there was nothing but darkness.

The light that had existed for a split moment having now faded and left him once more in the endless abyss of blackness that was his eternal prison.  
Invisible chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles, around his neck as a collar, treated as some sort of plaything for the only thing that existed in this wasteland of nothingness other than himself.  
All that he ever saw was black and white, but of what was still the question that raced through his head endlessly.  
It had been here longer than he had, there was no doubt about that, and now it kept him with it in the torment of knowing that he was helpless, chained down and unable to fly as it tore at his wings, trying to reach the bone under the feathers and tear them off bit by bit as to keep him with it forever.  
He did not see it, he never had.

There was white, and that was the only other color that existed in a world of monochrome, in a world of nothingness where only two things existed.  
He heard it, with its voice that sounded so familiar but he couldn't place, he felt it, with its soft and tender touch that was filled with an intensity almost unbearable to feel. But he was left without a choice, as they had was each other.  
He could always hear it, hear it shuffling up behind him, hear the faint footsteps of its light weight pressing on the ground, hear and feel its breathing as it came up beside him and whispered words of endless torment into his hears that were for him and him only to hear.  
There were too many emotions that he felt when it came up behind him, its hands and chest pressing lightly against his back, its hands dragging across his body without ever showing its face or appearance.  
He would dare not look at it.  
He would not look into the face that he did not know the description of, not look into the eyes of the _thing_ that imprisoned him here.  
There was no ticking of a clock, of a timer, anymore.  
Nothing that existed of the physical world to even keep him sane, feeling nothing as he was encased in his own mind, pulled even further down in an endless sleep.  
When he closed his eyes ( _was he really closing them?_ ) he saw only the faintest of images.

It was usually always the same: he was looking through no one's eyes, but they may as well have been his.  
He saw the edges of his knees as his head was tilted forward, his arms propped up on either side of him in the arms of a chair that he wasn't able to make out... His scarf, the ends dirt-speckled and tattered, pouring out from behind him and comforting his sides.  
Limp and lifeless, he was practically no more than a wax doll on display, no life in dead eyes that would never live to see the light of day again. Other times, it was the same, except for something else. Something white, and red... Almost just like what receded with him in this black prison that went on for all of eternity. And he had a pretty good idea of what - or who - it was.

 **"So helpless..."** Came a voice that struck into his very skull, the shuffling of... Something.. Coming up from behind him, crawling towards him on its hands and knees and kneeling down at his back, its own face likely inches away from his own, but not within the line of sight so that he could see what it looked like.  
Its voice... There was something about it... He knew it from somewhere, but he could not recognize where - perhaps he could not remember, perhaps it had been years, decades, however long he had been in a world where there was nothing for him to cling onto, nowhere for him to go.

 **"Just like we were for so long..."** It went on in a voice that tormented, dug down into the very crevices of the soul that made up his entire being, burrowing down into a heart that seemed to know something was trying to reach for it...  
 **"You should never have even been, you know.."** The cold touch of glass-like skin, smooth and soft, gentle and tender, yet with something flowing through fingers of snow white that effected every nerve in his body and almost forced him to react, **"We were the ones that were here in the very beginning... Those pathetic wretches made** ** _you_** **, something incompetent compared to all that we were... But we remained, deep down inside of you and just waiting for the moment when we were called to our feet, given the opportunity to escape and exist upon the world that you would put in..."**  
Shivers wracked his body at the words that were spoken in his ear, the hands that oh so delicately remained at his neck and feeling down below to his collarbone, as if wishing to know him, to feel the collar that wrapped around his neck, impossible to be seen.  
His eyes dampening, almost a refreshing feeling..

To just _feel_..

Something that existed in the physical world, that still existed in the one that he was eternally condemned to.  
But it was no relief, for the tears came because of the fear that coursed trough his veins, the feeling of that intensity setting all of his nerves alight nearly unbearable.  
But there was something that just seemed so familiar about it, something that he was unable to place just like the voice that rang in his ears as its lips hovered mere inches from the side of his head.

 **"Let's keep this between you and me, alright?..."** It spoke, the smallest hint of glee tracing the edges of those words like lace, **"Only one of us will ever see the dear light of day once more... Rather, I've never really seen it to begin with.. Because you kept me here, feasting on nothing but the small remnants that I have seen, almost lucid but not quite... Even so, that doesn't matter... Because now you know what it's like to sit in eternal darkness, like I always have..."**  
A small chuckle escaped accursed lips that went unseen, delicate yet strong fingers lifting up and never leaving his skin, slowly dragging up his body and running the fingers of what was supposedly its right hand over his barely noticeable Adam's apple.  
He swallowed dryly, wanting to jerk away from the wandering hands that had felt up and down his skin, had sent wave after wave of pressure through skin that wasn't able to handle it.

 **"How cute, you are..."** A small giggle on the inside of those words, cooing so sweetly and yet so maliciously into ears that wished to go deaf, **"There was one time when you let me out... Not fully, not truly, but just enough to embrace that vengeful soul of yours that was darkened for that split little moment... We were never closer, but now..."**  
His breath hitched when the feeling of something warm and damp touch the side of his neck and slowly drag up about an inch, every centimeter making him shiver and forcing a quiet whimper from his lips, laced with fear, decorated in terror like a Christmas Tree.  
Its hands had previously settled at his jawline, the feeling of intense pressure pulsating through there as long as its skin remained before dragging up his face.  
One went over his mouth, fingertips gently feeling the skin of his lips and making a shiver rip up his spine.

Pure white fingers, rivaling freshly fallen snow, went over his right eye and covered one half of his vision in darkness - not that it made a difference.  
 **"Do you remember me?..."** A single tear ran down his cheek, the warmth of salt water the only thing that he had to cling on too, the only thing that now reminded him he was still real.  
But he was just as real as the thing behind him, its lips just grazing the crown of his ear as it whispered sensually in a way that tormented the very mind, its touch pulsating through his jaw and through his eye, the sensitivity of his body heightening in the pressure that set every one of his nerves on fire.  
The death that he had come so near to would have been any fate better than the one that he spent with the thing behind him.  
 **"Do you remember, dear Gingka?"**  
A small giggle escaped its mouth, refusing to let him go as he was able to feel a smile spread across the words that flowed in a voice that he could not know.  
Gingka knew it was pointless to scream.

He did anyway.


	12. Chapter 11 - Cruel World

Chapter 11 - Cruel World

* * *

He at least had the strength to walk.

He was not completely dead, but he was not completely alive, so weak that it wore him out quickly but still with the strength to move on his own.  
He was not helpless, he was not just a doll that sat in his room all die and let them toy with his body like they had for years.  
They didn't tell him when he could or could not see him. He could always see him. He always saw everything.  
Hair dragging more than a meter behind him, trailing silently just like the soft and slow footsteps made by his shoes, weighing him down and slowing his already slow decent that went unaltered.  
He didn't understand why it was never cut. Why it was never severed from his head, always getting in the way.  
Of course, it had been his choice.

Never cut it.

Let it grow.

It wouldn't matter anyway, with the state that his body was in.  
A pale hand placed on the wall for a bit of support, his hair dragging behind him down the hall with no other footsteps but his own to be heard.  
He was almost there... He did not go down 5 levels of building for nothing, the entire descent a struggle but filled with one desire that carried him forward.  
They couldn't keep him from him.  
They had learned that the hard way.  
Even if kept from him physically, he could always see him with the inhuman eyes he had been born with, that they _both_ had.  
It pained him that they kept him around, that his heart was still beating in his chest. You would've thought he be happy that he was still here, that he was still alive in a sense and not completely rid of the world - at first, he had been, but as time passed he rued the day of that he dared see it as a good thing, the day that that incident took place and leaving him the way that he was.  
It was unsightly, disgusting, a waste of life.  
He should have killed him when he had had the chance, but he had been merely a child - either way, he was unable too now.

Soft pants escaped his paling lips, his eyes set firmly on the hall in front of him and being sure that he knew where he was and where he was going - he, of course, knew very well where he was going.  
He had been there a dozen times before, so what difference did this make?  
The door opened for him automatically, despite only being able to be open by a Key Card, but those rules had never applied to him from the very beginning.  
The darkness welcomed him, something he loved to see rather than the eternal white walls that surrounded him, the blackness that filled his poor excuse for a 'home' at night.  
The room was always dimmed, dark with little light to even write down anything on the few pieces of scrap paper that lay about on a few tables and by computers against the walls.  
He let out a soft breath, exhaustion evident in the sound of it from the wheezing noise that came out with it - the only thing that truly lit the room was a soft green glow, pleasing to the eyes and just the right color as to not hurt the delicate organs.  
A large tank, as it evidently appeared to be, filled to the brim with water that was lit with the color of green that enlightened the darkness of the room, almost oval-shaped if looking from the top, curved around the outside smoothly in glass that was assured never to break from the pressure.  
His footsteps were like endless shouts in a wide valley that was forced to carry them around forever, his hair dragging behind him on the floor and likely picking up the few dirt and dust particles that roamed on white metal - it would need to be washed afterwards, but that didn't really matter to him.  
His palm pressed against the glass, the only thing separating him from the flood of water that could come bursting through at any moment if the glass was not as pristine and thick as it was.  
Of course, it wasn't just the water that it separated him from.

It sickened him, honestly.

It had for years, disgusted him, made him inertly cringe at the thought and sight that he would often see with the power of his own eyes.  
His hand pressed flat against the glass, relishing in the coldness that bore through the clear and solid surface like a life line; of course, his body was relatively cold as it was, but compared to the warm atmosphere of his room, it was refreshing, relaxing. Even so, it didn't give him any comfort as to what was on the other side of the glass, what was contained inside the wide tube that wasn't just for show.  
Of course, anyone could see that even with just a simple glance there and back.  
There was no mercy, there was no hesitation, there was no relief of eternal pain with the fact that he wasn't even alive anymore but for the machine that kept his heart beating in his chest.  
He tilted his head forward, his forehead pressing against the glass with his eyes covered by his relatively long bangs that he never really let them cut.  
It would never matter if they did or not, his life was never to be very long from the beginning, that had been made perfectly clear in the life that he was born into.  
Of course, neither of them had ever been meant to last long...

* * *

Tsubasa had made his way back to his office as soon as he could manage after the call that he had gotten notifying him that Kyoya was attempting to get in contact with him.  
The entire way there, he had thought hard to himself about what exactly that was so, why Kyoya - even though being an old friend - was trying to contact him now of all times.  
They had never really stayed in contact that much, which resulted in the 2 year absence of their communication, and Kyoya also namely had other WBBA corporations to get in contact with in his time of need or for business matters.  
He was unsure of what Kyoya could want right now, why he could be calling him at a time like this when he knew that- No.  
Kyoya didn't know anything. Nobody outside Madoka, Benkei, himself, and the younger bladers knew anything about what was truly happening.  
None of the other Legendary Bladers knew that Dynamis and Gingka were dead, Kyoya didn't know that Hikaru had taken her own life, none of their other and old friends knew that they were all working to find a psychopath that wasn't even remotely human like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  
So if Kyoya were calling, Tsubasa knew he wasn't able to blame him for anything.  
He had every reason too, but for whatever reason it was truly for he had yet to find out as he stood alone in the elevator, making his way up to his own office to answer Kyoya and hopefully relieve him of whatever reason he was calling for.  
Would he ask about Gingka? Would he ask about Hikaru? Would he ask why he was acting so strange, why everything circling around Metal Bey City as of late seemed so odd, why the tournament was postponed for even longer, why it was even put on hold at all?  
He had put up the facade of everything actually being fine for the surrounding WBBA Directors, for the entire world, for some of his closest co-workers in the WBBA headquarters, and most of them still had no idea what everything was actually about.

Of course, Sichiro and Ayano knew that Gingka was dead, and knew what they had to do; others that he had sent to surrounding WBBA's knew as well, even if they didn't know the full story of why this was all needed.  
He couldn't risk telling everyone in the building, as it might slip out, and something like the death of Gingka Hagane would be sure to travel fast, practically on the other side of the world by morning and causing a major uproar for an explanation.  
Tsubasa had worked long and hard as the WBBA Director, succeeding Ryo Hagane years ago and taking his position; he had always known the ups and downs, the consequences of decisions, how vital small choices could be, and how to fool others into false perceptions of who he was or what was happening.  
He had worked for the WBBA before he had ever been Director, when he had first met Gingka was still playing the double agent with the Dark Nebula.  
Of course, that had been years ago, and even now he didn't know if his years of experience could help him in speaking to Kyoya - Kyoya was very observant, they had all seen that for himself.  
He had the eyes of a lion: watchful, dangerous, roaring with the wind that made the tornadoes he worked with in his earlier days. There were things that got past the Leone blader, but not very much as it had almost always seemed. Either way, though quite distant, they _were_ friends.  
For Tsubasa, though at times he knew it was necessary, it had always been a little harder to lie to friends.  
The silvernette entered his office, everything perfectly neat as it always was with likely a few more scanned profiles of other WBBA personnel waiting for him to look at them - but that was something that he would take care of later, seeing that Kyoya was wishing to speak with him for whatever reason.

Making his way around his desk, the Director sat down for a moment in his chair and picked up the receiver of the phone in the corner, pressing but only a few numbers before ceasing in that action and waiting patiently.  
"Hello, Director." Came a voice from the other end, the very same that he had heard on the other side of the line when he had answered his cellphone at the cemetery.  
"Tamako, if you would please send Kyoya Tategami through?" The silverette requested.  
It was retaliated almost immediately with, "Right away, Director."  
Trying to keep himself from wandering away into his thoughts too deeply, Tsubasa hung up the phone and turned stood up, letting out a sigh of weariness that was caused from all that had taken place in the rather eventful month they had gone through.  
He placed most of his weight on his hands for a moment as he sat there, his palms flat against the edge of his desk that he was originally so fond of seeing but now saw it as part of the burden that had been placed upon his shoulders, upon everyone's shoulders.  
Could they have done anything to prevent all of this from happening? Was there something they had done wrong to cause Alcorin to come after them? Of course, said psychopath had namely just been after Gingka, presenting that with the fact that the redhead had murdered his father 7 years prior, who had been none other than Nemesis.

Fighting against Nemesis had been one thing, but fighting against the offspring who took the form of a mere human man was another.  
He could easily be mistaken as human, as they had reasonably done from the simple fact that he looked so much like one. But he wasn't, and that was a fact.  
Standing up straight, regaining his posture and gathering the facade and mask that he had had practice in, Tsubasa turned to face the screen behind him that took up a fairly good portion of the wall and did not have to wait long before it clicked on and showed a face that he had not seen in a long time.

His appearance definitely hadn't changed, despite having much more of a manly physic rather than that of a teenager, but still with spiked green hair with bangs that hung over his face, the eternal scars of crosses over his frightening blue eyes that twinkled with a devious glint.  
Clad in a beige shirt and light green tie with a silver wrist-watch, he sat in a chair much like his own, one arm placed on the arm of the chair, while the other merely had the elbow on it, not really supporting his head with his fist but still having it near his jaw as he sat behind a brown desk with a few apparent papers off to the side.  
Tsubasa stifled a small laugh, a sense of ease coming upon him for the first time in a while upon seeing the face of one of his many old friends that he hadn't seen the face of in years.

"It's been awhile, Kyoya.." The silverette greeted, crossing his arms across his chest.  
"2 years.." Kyoya reminded, one of his signature smirks on his face and showing his small fangs that resembled the lion in him, King of Beasts just like he was the Director of his own corporation, "You're still looking pretty good. I see you didn't grow back that hair of yours." Tsubasa smiled slightly.  
"You don't look too bad yourself, Kyoya." He said in response, "But I'm going to guess that you calling me isn't just about saying hello, huh?" Kyoya faintly hummed in response, the smirk fading from his lips and being replaced with more of a serious look and crossing his arms across his chest in the very quick turn of subject.  
"No, it's not..." The greenette sighed slightly, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again to look into golden ones on the opposite side of a screen, "It's more from curiosity than anything, really, but I just thought that I'd ask..." Tsubasa raised an eyebrow, interested in what Kyoya was so curious about to come to him for answers.  
"What about?" The silver-haired Director asked.  
"What everybody else is probably asking.." Kyoya went on, eyes locked firmly on Tsubasa's expression on the other side of the screen, "Why exactly you postponed that tournament of yours for such a long time..."

And there it was.

Fortunately, Tsubasa had somewhat expected that maybe Kyoya was calling for that reason, since a lot of people were definitely confused and curious as to why the Bridge To The Future tournament was even brought to a stand still in the first place, let alone why Tsubasa had continued to postpone it for a reason that was not made known to the public or any of the other WBBA Directors around Japan or the world.  
It rather made sense that Kyoya would try to ask the man who announced it in the first place, considering that they did know each other rather well from back when Gingka lead the Beyblade generation as a mere teenager.  
The silverette simply sighed softly and looked down more towards the ground.  
"Yeah, a lot of people have been asking about that." He said, "But I already told the other WBBA Directors what it was about, so there's no real need for concern over it."  
Kyoya raised an eyebrow as well, the slightest twitch of a smirk on the edge of his mouth.  
"And what _is_ it about, Tsubasa?" The greenette asked, a cunning gleam sparking in his clever blue eyes that could only be recognized as nearly the exact same person from years ago, "I'm pretty sure I'm fairly associated with the WBBA corporations, so what makes me so different from your colleagues?"  
Tsubasa sighed softly through his nose, closing his eyes for a moment before looking up from the ground and towards the screen where Kyoya was displayed.

"I don't see what obligates me to answer you, Kyoya." The silverette responded, eagle-like eyes staring into ones that pierced through tornadoes and barriers, "We'll get the tournament going again after we've all settled a few things... I don't know how long it'll take, but it's not anything that we don't have under control."

Lie.

Tsubasa knew that was a lie.

A cold, hard lie that he made not only to Kyoya, but himself, as well as everyone else.

To say that they had ever been in control would be a sin, if lying was indeed that.  
Alcorin had been the one pulling at the strings the entire time, and having the rest of them unwillingly do his own bidding for him by thinking that they actually had control of the situation for a split moment.  
Of course, he couldn't just say that - it would probably the least logical thing to anyone except for all of them.  
Besides, just saying that Gingka was dead was something that would be rather hard to believe or comprehend, since no one would even suspect such a thing - that the tournament's stand-still was caused by the death of Gingka Hagane.

"Huh.." Kyoya said, leaning back in his chair a bit with a small smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth, "Well, if you have it all under control, then I don't see why you have to seem so secretive about it..."

"Having it under control means that it's not something that you should be worrying about." Tsubasa retorted, keeping his patience in check and his barriers up, "I already made it clear with the other WBBA Directors. I'll have the tournament up and going as soon as I can manage, I just don't know when... Either way, it doesn't matter why I postponed it, it'll be back eventually."  
There were several moments of silence that fell upon the 2 of them. Light blue staring into golden-brown, both sets of orbs seeming to try to either find something or block something out, a moment of silence that spoke more than words were ever able too.  
It was only what after seemed like hours did Kyoya grunt with a small smirk on his face, breaking eye contact by closing his eyelids and taking on a more lax posture.

"Well, I guess if you insist.." The greenette said cleverly, opening his eyes once more, "I'll be looking forward to seeing who becomes Japan's Representatives, so I hope you don't plan on having your own business taking to long."  
Tsubasa chuckled softly, though only through his nose while a small smile made its way onto his lips.  
"We'll see." He said simply, "Next time, let's not put 2 years in between conversations, as well."

"Deal." Kyoya agreed, "See you then." A small smile crossed Kyoya's lips, showing his fanged teeth before cutting off the connection with WBBA Director.  
It was only then did Tsubasa let out a breath that he had been unaware that he was holding, which was strange since it seemed like he had been breathing fine.  
Turning a bit, he slumped back into his chair, the tension in the room seeming to have lifted now that Kyoya had cut off the connection with him and gone back to do whatever it was that he did.  
Hopefully he had been able to play it off well enough for Kyoya not to suspect anything, unless he already did.  
Of course, he had no way of telling for sure - despite being well trained in this sort of thing, he knew that not a lot of things could really get past Kyoya.  
Either way, he could try and make it past his friend's suspicions, even if it didn't do much in the end. Tsubasa looked towards the clock on his desk, seeing that it was 4:07.  
Sichiro and Ayano should be coming back from their trip to Tokyo with the orders that he had given them, hopefully with something that would be able to calm his weary mind - of course, that wasn't very likely...

* * *

Kyoya tapped his fingers on the wood of his desk simply moments after he had cut off the connection with Tsubasa at the WBBA headquarters in Metal Bey, seeming to be thinking to himself as his blue eyes narrowly stared at the opposite end of his desk.  
The sound of the automatic doors opening reached his ears, but he didn't look up to see who it was - other things were on his mind that didn't really involve whoever came into his office.

Well, unless it was-

"Big brother, I have some paperwork for you." Came a voice that Kyoya recognized all too well.

Yes, him, of course.

His little brother, Kakeru, who worked side by side with him as his right-hand.  
Looking up from his desk, Kyoya's blue eyes landed on ones that were much like his own, his younger brother looking exceedingly like him with no mistake of them being related.  
Of course, one didn't have to have the sense of sight to tell that the two of them were brothers, from how similar they were.

"Thanks, Kakeru." Kyoya greeted, entwining his fingers on top of his desk and putting them in front of him as his younger brother set the papers down on his desk, leaving him with the rather large tablet that he usually carried around with him for his work, "Who's it from this time?"

"Italy." Kakeru answered, "I checked them over before I brought them to you. It has something to do with their increasing low in prophet for any of their Bey Parks and such that they have around Rome." Kyoya hummed in understanding, remaining silent for a moment as he eyed the papers that Kakeru had placed on his desk in a neat stack before closing eyes and looking away from them.  
"I'll see to it." The CEO declared, straightening up a bit in his seat, "They ought to be more interesting than what dear old Tsubasa had to say to me." Kakeru looked at his elder brother with a raised eyebrow, a look of confusion and interest on his still rather young features.  
"Director Otori?" The younger greenette questioned, recognizing the name that he had heard several times from his brother, around the building, and from the news, "When did you talk to him?"

"Just now." Kyoya answered, the smallest twitch of a smile on his lips, "For the first time in about 2 years, I might add. Questioned him on why exactly he postponed the Bridge To The Future tournament, but he said he had it under control. Didn't much answer my question though." Kakeru's face lit up slightly at the mention of the famed BTF tournament that was said to be making one of the biggest decisions of the Beyblade era.  
"Oh, I've watched the tournament with the few battles that they had." The right-hand said, "I've been waiting to find out who's going to be Japan's Representatives, but no go so far. I hope they start it up again soon." Kyoya grunted softly, with Kakeru could recognize as a sound of agreement - of course, it always depended on what kind of sound Kyoya's few grunts made that really signified his emotion or words.  
"That makes just about everyone." The elder greenette acknowledged, "But I've had my little chat with him, and it almost sounds like Tsubasa might be hiding something.. My guess, is that it has something to do with why he brought the tournament to a stand-still in the first place." Kakeru, slightly interested, looked at his older brother with a slightly confused look on his face.  
"And why do you think that?" He asked. "He seemed a little secretive on the subject." Kyoya answered, "Of course, I guess he doesn't have to explain it to me, either way. But we'll see how it goes whenever he starts the tournament up again. Now, what did you say that Italy wanted, exactly?"  
Putting on a small smile and looking towards his tablet for a moment while sliding his fingers across it, Kakeru explained to his elder brother the business they had with the topic country...

* * *

 _There had been voices._

 _Voices from an unidentifiable source that she had tried to spot, tried to see just to feel some sort of comfort that she knew where they were coming from, knowing that they were coming from somewhere nearby and not just from within the depths of her cranium._

 _But there had been nothing around her._

 _Nothing, and no one._

 _The world around her being crumpled away by shadows, shadows that threatened to swallow her whole with the voices that invaded her mind, rang in the back of her head and caused her temples to ache, only for it all to stop and the world seeming to come back before it happened again._  
 _Inaudible words protruding from the back of her skull, echoing through and her head and forcing her to listen._  
 _Bringing her hands up to her ears, pushing on them with force unimaginable as if she were trying to crush her own skull with her bare hands, but it did nothing to keep the constant vocals in her head from intruding._  
 _She would've pounded her head against a wall, against the ground, if she had been able to, if she had been able to function properly with the voices that tortured her, seemed to call to her._  
 _There were no audible words, though maybe there had been, maybe she hadn't heard them._  
 _She screamed at them, screamed in a voice that she could barely even hear as if her throat had gone dry and her speech hoarse, unable to hear herself as she was plagued by the voices, by the shadows that crawled up her legs and pulling at her stockings, pulled at the edges of her jacket and tried to swallow her whole._

 _She pulled away, threw them off, ran to nowhere (_ _But was she actually running?...) with no sense of direction._

 _Her legs felt numb, but she hadn't felt them at all in the first place, had she?  
Something calling out to her, distracting her from something, tormenting her inside of her own head with a mere voice that taunted, mocked, called, screamed, refused to leave her alone._

 _Stop it..._

 _Stop talking..._

 _Leave me alone..._

 _Darkness, pulling at the world around her, a world that was blurry and unable to be made out, everything crumbling away from the shadows that chased her, but she still chased after it._  
 _She wanted to be somewhere where there were no voices in her head, nothing calling out to her and pulling at her, where no one would call her crazy._

 _She wasn't crazy._

 _She wasn't. She wasn't._

 _But the voice in her head could always say otherwise._

* * *

Ren jolted awake from her state of uneasy slumber, a soft and strangled gasp escaping her, apparently, already open lips as she lay on her back, luscious brown eyes staring up towards the dark ceiling of the hotel room.  
It was hot.  
Of course, it was the middle of the summer, so why wouldn't it be? Her heart beat fast in her chest, her body drenched in a cold sweat that made her bangs stick her forehead, her nightdress coating her skin under the blankets like a vinyl suit, her blonde hair splayed out across the pillows that she was currently sharing with Madoka and Maru in the same hotel bed, seeing as how there were only 2.  
Kite and Eight were sleeping in the other bed, while Zyro, Benkei, Shinobu, and Kira were in a room across the hall from them, likely sleeping the night away peacefully in the hot summer heat that beat down on the Earth.  
Breathing hard, Ren sat up in bed, being sure that she hadn't awoken anyone with her sudden panic from slumber - but all of them were asleep.  
Kite and Eight had evidently kicked off the covers, now just sleeping on the mattress while the fan whirred around on the ceiling.  
Even so, it didn't really seem to do much for her as the sweat covered her skin, soaking through her beige nightgown that made it stick to her skin.  
Her hair didn't feel that much better, thick with sweat as she ran her hand through it, trying to get her heart to stop beating so rapidly from the nightmare she had awoken from.

 _"Was it really just a nightmare?..."_ Ren wondered, thinking to herself while calming herself down and reminding herself that this was reality.  
This was real, and her dreams were not.  
Her dreams were just a mixed up world of this and that, on an entirely different plane that didn't really exist, the closest thing to death that the living had.

This was real.

Ren leaned forward, her back aching a bit from the stiffness of sleep and burying her face in her hands.  
He mind went back to that day that she had battled Genjuro in the BTF tournament, where she had started the battle and had been about to unleash a winning attack before she woke up in a hospital bed, apparently the next morning.  
She had no recollection of what happened, except for hearing some voice that she couldn't recognize, that she was still unable to identify.  
The memory was hazy, but it was all that she had. Zyro and the others had had to explain to her what had happened as she had battled Genjuro, a scenario that she still couldn't remember; they had said she had started looking around frantically, yelling at thin air and appearing to be screaming at someone, but nobody had been around her.  
It was because of that did she lose, Genjuro's attack being strong enough to knock her out of the stadium and send her to the hospital with minor injuries.  
She had been submitted for a possible head injury, which had indeed been caused by her impact on the glossed-over pavement of the arena, though it hadn't been anything too serious that involved her staying longer than a few days.

But that voice stayed etched into her skull, forever in her memory as something that haunted her, mocked her often in her sleep that lead to restless nights.  
Ren was never able to lucidly hear the voice in her dreams, she couldn't hear what it was saying, and she could barely hear what it sounded like, but it tormented her self-conscious nonetheless. Sighing into her hands, Ren sat up straight once more, her eyes now adjusted to the darkness and able to see around the room - though there wasn't that much to see, really.  
She knew that she should get some sleep, seeing as how they were leaving for Kasama in the morning once they were all up and ready, which would definitely be another long walk down by the roadside.  
But if meant catching Alcorin, the man who had taking control of her body and mind without her consent or her knowledge and made her fight her own friends, than it was more than worth it.  
Laying her head back down on the pillows, getting her body into a comfortable position on her side, Ren stared at the wall aimlessly as though willing herself into sleep through her thoughts and leaving her eyes open but glazed over the entire night.  
That didn't happen with her, though.  
Hair thick with sweat, body covered in it from head to toe, Ren closed her eyes and tried to rest for the night - even if it meant being plagued by the terrors that were her common dreams.

Ayumi had always been the one to comfort her after a nightmare... But her older sister wasn't here. She hadn't been for years, because she had said that the world partially depended on her with the job that she had, that she couldn't help the world be any better if she didn't leave the place that she had grown up in along with her dear little sister.  
That basically just told her that her job was more important than the flesh and blood that looked up to her as a role model, that loved her unconditionally.  
But Ayumi had simply said that by moving away to South Korea for her job, she could help the world become better in some sort of aspect; which meant helping Ren as well.  
 _"One hell of a world you believe in, Ayumi..."_ Ren thought to herself bitterly, before she passed on into unconscious with the unrelenting heat.


	13. Chapter 12 - Unanswered

Chapter 12 - Unanswered

* * *

It was roughly 7:00 or so in the morning when Ayano and Sichiro had finally gotten all of their profiling done, leaving Ayano in an exhausted state that she claimed would require a full day off of work and doing nothing but staying in bed.  
Sichiro, though he had been the one to let Ayano do all of the work as she had insisted, partially agreed while the goosebumps on the surface of his skin below his sleeves remained.  
Ayano was able to clearly see the uneasiness on his face, the anxiety that had been there since the very moment they had stepped into that helicoptor to head towards the Tokyo WBBA, but she simply took his word for it that it was his nerves acting up from being away from the place that he called home.  
She knew how feeling homesick felt, but she had never experienced what Sichiro seemed to be going through - she had been tense several times in her childhood when going off to distant places for trips, and wary at that, but it usually did fade within the first 24 hours or so as she adapted.  
Sichiro seemed to be the exact opposite of that, never seeming to calm down even for a moment as he remained stiff, rigid, a look of uneasiness flashing in his steel grey eyes.  
Of course, seeing as how none of them really knew Sichiro that well - which was mildly concerning from long they had known him at the WBBA headquarters - it wasn't really her place to judge him.  
Maybe it was something from when he was a child that caused him to be so anxious when being away from a place that he called home.  
The greenette simply accepted his word of some sort of homesickness and left it at that, both of them now walking through the building on their way to say their farewells to Director Hideyoshi.

One of the workers was leading them along, saying that Director Hideyoshi was currently still on the floor that they were on, having had several things to do on this one specifically throughout the hours that they had been here.  
It was surprising, as both Sichiro and Ayano would've thought that the man would've been tired and weary with the desire to go back to his residence and seek sleep, especially at the age that he appeared to be at - but seemingly not, as the man was still wide awake as they came to him to bid their farewells.

"I trust you got all of the information that you needed?" The Director asked the two of them, pushing his spectacles up on his long nose just a bit.  
"As far as we're both aware." Ayano said, a soft sigh to her voice as she spoke with a sophisticated nature about her, "I thank you for your help, Director Hideyoshi. I have no doubt that Director Otori will definitely appreciate it." Hideyoshi gave a warm smile, the wrinkles on his face deepening slightly - despite how warm it seemed, Sichiro was already more rigid than he had been the entire time.  
Just being near him... Looking at him... It made a rock sink inside of his stomach, his anxiousness causing him to softly bite the inside of his lip to keep himself even a bit occupied.  
"It was my pleasure." The Director responded, "I'm willing to help you in any way I can manage." Ayano hummed softly in response, a sound of appreciation, as Sichiro was able to tell.

He almost wondered how she was able to act so care-freely around this man, how she didn't tense in his presence like he himself did, how she didn't have an anxious look deep in her eyes as she looked at him, as he stood near her; but it didn't take him long to remind himself why.  
Ayano wasn't like him - nobody back at the WBBA headquarters even really knew anything about him, even with the all the years that he had spent working there. But, even with his visible uneasiness, Sichiro said nothing.

"Well, we'll be heading back to Metal Bey City." Ayano said, glancing back at Sichiro as a gesture to his company, "Me and Sichiro have some other things to do there."

"I can imagine so." Hideyoshi said in perfect understanding, "I will have Satoshi see you out to the landing pad. I bid you a safe trip back." Ayano smiled, evidently grateful from the Tokyo Director's kindness towards them.  
"Thank you very much." She said, looking towards the man that had lead them into the building in the first place when they had arrived.  
"No need." Hideyoshi said simply, "Besides, it was quite nice to see you again."

Sichiro's heart beat hard against his chest, a suffocating feeling that almost made him swear he was having a heart attack.  
Though as his gaze was on Ayano, Director Hideyoshi's dark eyes flashed his way for a split moment, sending a hard shiver ripping up Sichiro's spine and leaving him momentarily frozen. Steel grey eyes averted away, refusing to make eye contact with ones so deceivingly warm yet cold underneath, trying not to seem as rigid as he was though unable to help it from the automatic reaction.  
Of course, Ayano may have reacted the way he had too, if she was the one in his shoes.

But she was not.

Despite how long they had known each other, despite how long they had worked together in the WBBA building with several Directors over the years, Ayano actually didn't know anything about him. Nobody did, or at least not really.  
He never spoke about life before he had been at the WBBA headquarters in Metal Bey, and everyone seemed just fine with that - of course, he did have his reasons.  
But the female greenette smiled back towards the elder man, nodding as a type of way of saying it back.  
"Well, we'll be taking our leave." She said, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear and turning towards Satoshi, who was ready to lead them out. Said worker glanced over at the Director with light green eyes, his queue being the nod that he was replied with before beckoning both Ayano and Sichiro along.  
For the first time since they had gotten there, Sichiro felt like he was finally able to relax. They were leaving. They were finally leaving, as the sun had risen over the horizon and was already illuminating this side of the world with it's blinding and divine light.  
Ayano looked over at her colleague with cerulean eyes, the glance being returned ever so slightly with orbs of steel grey that now - finally - looked a bit more lax than before; it was a sight that made her smile.  
The raven had been anxious ever since they had first climbed into the helicopter to come to the Tokyo WBBA, and he had been blatantly uneasy the entire time they had been there with seemingly no explanation but for his nerves acting up upon some sort of homesickness.

She'd be lying if she said that she herself wasn't glad that they were finally returning home after long hours of work, where they would hopefully be able to relax after working through most of the morning since the very early hours of the day.  
Both of them stepped out onto the rooftop along with Satoshi, who held the door open for them both as they were greeted by the strong winds and the nearly overwhelming whirring of the helicopter blades, already ready for them to board and take off back to Metal Bey City.

"Thank you!" Ayano said to Satoshi over the sounds of the rotating blades, which the Tokyo Worker simply nodded to before he watched them both head towards their transportation.  
Sichiro's hair, much unlike Ayano's, blew all over the place from the force that the rotating blades had on the natural air current, pushing his raven locks out of his face and petting them back down as they both got inside the WBBA helicopter that would - finally - take them back home.  
 _"Home..."_ Sichiro thought to himself, the word rolling over in his head almost as if it were foreign.  
Brushing some loose strands of hair out of her face, Ayano turned her cerulean eyes towards the ravenette who leaned against the opposite window, weariness and relief plastered blatantly on his smooth features that made him look a bit younger - he now seemed much more relaxed as they were in the helicopter that would finally take them back to Metal Bey City as it lifted itself up off the landing pad atop the Tokyo WBBA headquarters, raising itself over the top of the buildings to transport them elsewhere.  
Sighing through her nose, the greenette leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs at the knee, her arms resting contently in her lap as the knowledge that they had completed their task sunk in.  
She was relieved that they were finally going back as well, but Sichiro - strangely enough - seemed even more so than her.  
She didn't think much of it, as coming back from that kind of mission always left her tired, but she still couldn't help but worry...

* * *

Zyro, Madoka, and the others had awoken early the next morning and had gotten their bearings together in the coolness of the fairly early hours.  
Though the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon already, they had all checked out of the hotel early that morning while the woman at the front desk was sipping on her morning coffee that she was usually able to have before many people were even out and about.  
The 9 of them were already on the made road and heading out of Mito towards Kasama by the time the day was lit, several of them fairly weary from either lack of sleep (such as Ren) or from the effort and exhaustion that all of this brought onto them.  
Madoka and Maru were somewhere near the front, relying on Maru's bracelet-map to guide them most of the way, and the pinkette had advised that they as long as they were able to stick to the road, they would reach Kasama with no problem.  
Kira silently vouched that as fairly accurate, voicing it silently to himself in an inaudible tone that was only barely present to Zyro's ears, who walked beside him most of their way out of the city of Mito.  
Being as fairly early as it was, there were hardly any cars on the road which left them with plenty of space to walk until later in the day - of course, they would probably have to camp out in the woods just off the side of the highway, but that wasn't too much of a concern.

It was still fairly early in the morning, and seeing as how Kasama wasn't that far from Mito, they would hopefully be able to get there by the time the sun fell back behind the mountains, probably even by mid-day, depending on their pace.  
After all, Kasama may have very well been a part of Mito, from how close the two cities were.  
The 9 of them currently walked through the more western outskirts of Mito, though there wasn't really much there before it lead into more farmland, as was sort of expected.  
From how close Kasama was located to Mito, they were actually walking through nothing but outskirts.  
Most of them knew that it wouldn't last long, as heading to Kasama meant being a slightly more mountain-filled region, which more than likely meant forests around small and big towns alike; of course, Kasama was located at the beginning of a valley that was mountains off to the side, said mountainous regions being well known by the public that lived near them.  
Either way, they were all determined with what they knew they had to do, and from the objective that they had they were all willing to take their chances and make the effort.  
Not all of them had the same motivation and reasons, by they definitely all did have a reason for even being there at all - Zyro knew perfectly well that if Kira didn't consider himself bound to the promise he had made to repay the Fire Blader for saving his life, he would've abandoned the thought of helping at all a long time ago and left them to the cold.

"So, from what we got from that book that you two found in the library..." Ren began, looking over to both Madoka and Maru, "We're suggesting that Alcorin's somewhere near mountains?"

"I guess..." Madoka said, a yawn almost immediately following which would probably end up being contagious, at yawns often were, "It's only thing we really have to go on." Adjusting his glasses on his nose with his middle finger, Kite lightly cleared his throat.  
"Seeing as how it mentioned that many shrines and temples dedicated to Nemesis were made," The spikey-haired bruentte speculated, "And seeing as how most were said to be located around mountains or in rural areas, it's a high possibility." Kira sighed through his nose, closing his one eye for a moment and tilting his head forward slightly.  
"From Kasama to Sakuragawa and Moka, it's practically nothing but surrounded by mountains.." The one-eyed boy said with boredom, "We'll have tons of fun looking through those."

"Car." Zyro said suddenly in a voice that was almost robotic, glancing back over his shoulder at the familiar sound of quickly rolling wheels against cement.  
At his signal, a couple of them drew closer to the road side, allowing the small vehicle to pass by fluidly - it probably looked strange to the driver of the car to see so many people travelling together on the side of the road for some reason, but with humanity's practical instincts to take it as none of their business, they simply drove by and headed towards wherever their destination was located.  
"He's probably not even anywhere _in_ Japan, for all we know." Kira continued, now able to finish his brief moment of speech now that the minor distraction was gone, "He's one for sending all of you on a wild goose chase."  
That much was true, as they did have to admit.  
Alcorin had fooled all of them the first time with his location alone, making them entirely unaware that while they were in the WBBA building they were practically walking on his roof as he likely laughed in triumph while everything went his way.  
And now he was likely throwing them out on a wild goose chase once again, all of them having no idea where he was while he was probably right under their noses like the first time around.

"True that." Benkei admitted, being the first to say so aloud.

"Come on, we can find the guy." Ren said, working it up to sound at least a bit optimistic, which was exceedingly hard nowadays with how things had been turning out for them, "Eventually, anyway..." The sound of 2 more cars passing in the opposite direction they were walking came to their ears briefly, the sound of moving wheels coming and going as fast as they came.  
Though it was still fairly early, the sun had already fully risen from its hiding place behind the horizon, making the sky more of it's dashing blue than that of the dark night, highlighted by thin streaks of pink, purple, and orange.  
They would make it to Kasama in no time - after all, it wasn't even that far away.  
Maru, looking up at the sky for a moment, now looked up towards her teacher of who she had a habit of sticking close to from their years together.

"How do you think Tsubasa's doing back at the WBBA, Chief?" The pinkette asked in curiosity, turquoise irises glancing down towards the lavender ones of the girl that was the woman's student.  
"Well, we did manage to talk to him yesterday.." Madoka recalled, bringing a hand up to her chin in thought, "With how many people he sent out, I don't doubt that he'd probably find something useful, but who knows..."

"He said he'd contact us if he did find anything, didn't he?" Shinobu asked, that curious nature of his gently lacing his voice.  
"Save for when he called to ask us where we were, yeah." Ren answered, looking over at her light-haired friend.  
"I'm sure he'll let us know." Madoka said, glancing back over her shoulder slightly, "He's got a lot more resources than we do, after all."

"I'm guessing he's good at coming up with excuses to use those 'resources', then?" Kira questioned, which actually sounded like he had genuine interest in the answer.  
"He has his ways, trust me.." Madoka replied, recalling Tsubasa's earlier days back before the Nemesis Crisis, when he had been an undercover agent of the WBBA within the Dark Nebula, which had exceedingly fooled everyone before he had revealed his true motivations and occupation.  
She wouldn't put it past him to get some information from the several sources that he knew and had; of course, there were things that even he couldn't do, and considering that nobody outside of them had any remote idea that Gingka was dead, it likely wasn't going to be an easy thing for the Director.  
"He'll probably find something." Benkei said, grinning slightly.  
"Maybe..." Zyro muttered, though it was more to himself than anyone else. Shinobu's light green eyes glanced back at the other blader over his shoulder, looking at the relatively blank expression that did absolutely nothing to flatter him - after all, the first time he had met Zyro, there had been a smile on his face.  
The Salamander Blader fell back a bit in his pace so that he was able to walk beside his best friend without looking over his shoulder and being unable to watch where he was going, leaning his over in the slightest bit towards him.

"You okay, Zyro?" The light-haired blader asked, concern evident in his light green irises that were almost covered by his hair.  
Eyes as blue as the morning sky looked back towards him, looking somewhat surprised that Shinobu had fallen back a bit to walk beside him.  
But of course he had - Shinobu was his best friend, and it was obvious that he worried and cared about him.  
Why would he have put up with his tears 3 days ago when no one had believed him that Alcorin was alive, when he was still extremely confused and frustrated with the whole matter himself?

Or had it simply been pity that did that?

Zyro internally shook his head, trying to force the thought out of his mind. Shinobu was his friend, he wouldn't at least try to comfort him because he felt obligated too.

Would he?...

But all Zyro could do was give the light-haired blader a small smile, a tug of his lips that felt so tiring to do, so nearly painful after it had been absent from his face for so long - why _was_ that?... What was he even supposed to believe anymore?  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Zyro replied, which was ever so blatantly a lie even with how much that he - and Shinobu - wished that it were true.  
"Okay..." The Salamander blader responded, uncertainty being the highlight of his voice. That smile was fake... He knew when Zyro smiled genuinely, as it was one of the first things he had seen from the other blader upon their first meeting that seemed to have been only yesterday.  
When Zyro genuinely smiled, it was... Quite nice, for lack of better words.  
Just his personality was enough to make people a bit happier, even with someone like Kira.  
Zyro's smiles were always filled with that heated nature of his, the determination radiating off of him and was practically visible with his burning spirit that came in the form a bright and powerful inferno that illuminated eyes of nearly the opposite color.

But now, that fire could barely be seen, dwindling on the edge and still desperately hanging on with the bit of hope that it had left, the motivation that it had to keep burning and cling to life.  
Most of them were obviously keeping their eyes on him, watching him constantly as the flame that made up his entire spirit remained small, a simple candle flame that could be blown out by a simply breath, so delicate unlike the inferno that usually blazed, unable to be tampered with and burning brightly without falter.  
Zyro had changed.  
And the mere thought - to Shinobu - was a rather frightening one.  
Either way, he took Zyro's word for it even though he knew that it was a lie with a small smile that would make everything seem okay to anyone else, but not them. Not when they had gone through nearly the same thing.  
Sighing through his nose, Shinobu looked away and turned his head forward, the sun rising higher in the sky as time went on as they all made their way to the town of Kasama.  
And as they were to go on, with an inhuman psychopath dwelling in their shadows, nothing good was to come to them...

* * *

Takanosuke yawned widely as both he and Sakyo walked along the roadside, having taken off from their small camping spot from the previous night roughly an hour or so ago.  
Sakyo had been awake long before he had, and Takanosuke was actually confused on whether or not Sakyo had slept at all - the redhead didn't really say anything, simply waiting for Takanosuke to be ready before they set off again from their temporary base at the edge of Lake Hinuma.  
Now, both of them were walking down the road towards their destination of Ibaraki, Takanosuke continuously following the elder blader since he knew that Sakyo's sense of direction was likely way greater than his was.  
"I'm tired..." Takanosuke sighed, recovering from his yawns and rubbing his eyes a bit.  
Red eyes glanced down towards the blonde beside him, though said nothing in response.  
Cerulean eyes looked up towards the redhead that he followed, another yawn captivating him for a moment and interrupting his line of sight from the need to close his eyelids, eyes watering naturally from the gesture of weariness.  
"So..." Takanosuke began, making sure to keep up with Sakyo's long strides, "How much longer until we get there, Sakyo?" There was a moment of silence, which wasn't uncommon between the two of them with Sakyo's usual nature outside of the Bey Arena, but his question did not go unanswered as it hung there for a moment.

"Not long." The Dragoon blader answered rigidly, his voice steady and hard, cold as ice, but Takanosuke had already come to terms with that and had never really minded from the beginning.  
Sure, the way that Sakyo spoke had sent shivers through him before, but after being friends for so long - of which Sakyo merely reduced down to 'Syncrome Partners' - he had gotten used to it and it no longer bothered him.  
He sometimes found it quite comforting, actually, even with how odd it sounded. Maybe it was just because he liked hearing people talk.  
His dad and him never conversed that much since he was always working, and his mom... Well, all communications with his mom had nearly been erased once his dad had gotten full custody of him - he wasn't even sure if his mom would even want to see him.  
He couldn't even remember the sound of his voice, which was probably why Sakyo's calmed him so much.  
As well as Zyro and the others whenever he was around them; they would call him weird for that, he was sure, but he wouldn't care either way.

"Okay.." The Griffin blader said simply, making sure to keep up with Sakyo since his strides were much shorter than the elder's.  
"Have you ever been to Ibaraki?" The blonde asked, trying to keep beside his friend.  
"No." Sakyo answered simply, "I haven't." Once more, Takanosuke fell silent for a few moments.  
While he did like being around Sakyo, the hardest thing about the slightly older blader was that he evidently wasn't one who held up conversations that much - he was actually quite reserved to himself, even though he did consider Takanosuke a friend, despite saying they were merely Syncrome Partners.  
"I have." Takanosuke finally said, "When I was little anyway, and we used to go camping at Lake Hinuma. I can't remember too much about it, though..." Crimson red orbs glanced down towards a curly, blonde-haired head, though nothing came in response from Sakyo's lips as he simply listened to the words of his comrade.  
"It's really small, I remember that..."

Takanosuke continued, bringing a hand up to his chin in thought as he tried to recall the few memories that he had in his childhood fo the small town of Ibaraki, "Uuhhh... There's not really much to it, actually..."  
Once more, there was an awkward silence between the two, the sound of cars driving to and fro filling their ears as they walked along the side of the road, possibly looking like some form of hitch-hikers to those driving past that wanted nothing to do with them.  
Takanosuke lowered his one hand back down to his side, looking down towards the ground as he followed along just beside the other blader that he looked up to, trying to think of something else that he could say that wouldn't almost immediately result in just plain silence once more, but when it came to Sakyo there really wasn't much that he could talk about.  
Even when he was talking to him, it was almost like talking to a person on the other side of a door, with only the occasional answer and few words that came from the opposite side as you talked away and tried to keep conversation.  
But it _was_ just the way Sakyo was, right?

"Sakyo?.." Takanosuke began, looking up towards the Dragoon Blader, soon meeting crimson irises in response that told him Sakyo was at least listening.  
But then again, he normally did listen, seemingly being a man of few words outside of Beybattles.  
Now knowing that Sakyo was all ears, Takanosuke looked forward as he went on, a solemn look on his face with half-lidded eyes.  
"Ren told us that Gingka was dead, right?" Sakyo's eyes widened in the slightest at the sudden question, surprised in the quick change in subject and atmosphere that the topic brought with it.  
"Yes." The redhead answered simply, regaining his composure once again and once more being all ears for the shorter male.  
"Well..." Takanosuke began again, almost seeming to hesitate in even saying anything about it at all, "We know what that's doing to them, sort of. Since he was their friend and all, but... What is that supposed to mean for everyone else?"

Raising an eyebrow, Sakyo looked down towards the Griffin Blader, the younger turning his gaze to meet his, "Like, uh... It's kind of weird, since barely anybody knows about it other than us and them. What's gonna happen when everybody else finds out?"

That was a very good question.

Even Sakyo had to admit it, and he really didn't know how to answer that question.  
Usually, Takanosuke's questions were rather simple, easy to answer and only sometimes a little complex.  
But this was a subject that he hadn't really thought that the kid would bring up, that he would dwell on it at all - but then again, they were chasing after the exact same sociopath that Zyro and the others likely were, which may it a rather reasonable thing to think about.  
Gingka had evidently been a friend to Zyro and the rest of his group, which was sort of surprising since he had been a Legendary Blader, the very man that had defeated Nemesis and namely saved the world on, apparently, a number of different occasions.  
As it stood, nobody outside of them had any remote idea that Gingka Hagane was dead, and when the rest of the world found out... Well, what _would_ it mean?

Would it cause an uproar?

Would it cause grief and sorrow to the rest of the world just like it had to Zyro and his friends?

Or would everybody just be shocked for a moment and then just push it aside like it was no big deal?

Either way, Gingka had been the one that even made all of what they stood on and for now possible in the first place, and gaining the news that he was suddenly dead wasn't exactly something that the entire world was expecting.  
What was everyone going to do once all of this was over?  
What would happen when it was over and the truth about Gingka Hagane was revealed to the world?

Sakyo found himself baffled by the question just as much as Takanosuke was, but decided to answer as best as he could nonetheless.  
"I don't know." The Dragoon blader said firmly, looking away from the blonde beside and setting his eyes forward. Takanosuke's eyes widened at the blunt answer, and was almost about to say something before Sakyo continued.  
"We'll all have to figure it out." Sakyo went on, "The world's not just going to forget about it so easily, but we'll all have to find a way to move on from it... Once this is over, that is." Cerulean irises stared up towards the elder for a moment, and while he finished his sentence, Sakyo looked back towards one of the only real friends that he had ever had.  
It took a moment for both of them to register that they had stopped walking altogether, coming to a halt on the side of the road while cars sped past in their need to get to places, to their destinations, while they simply stood there as though transfixed in time.  
Grunting softly, Sakyo turned his head away and looked forward, and began walking down the roadside once more.  
"Come on, we're almost there." He said gruffly, and he heard the sound of Takanosuke hurrying up to be by his side...

* * *

There was nothing but silence, all except for his footsteps as he made his way up the wide flight of stairs, robes dragging behind him lightly and with no chance of getting caught on anything.  
Alcorin's steps were naturally light, almost undetectable at times from how quiet he made them, how he had learned to walk in a youth that he now laughed it in all its pathetic misery.

He sort of liked to think of it as sneaking up on his brother, but that was impossible.

Being catatonic was no different than being comatose; he wasn't even there.

He couldn't hear, feel, see, nothing.

He was as good as dead in all reality, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to care about that.

After so long, he finally had him back - after all the years that they had never known each other, after all of the time that they had missed out on, they were together once more, and he would make sure that nobody would ever take his only family from him ever again.  
Haunting eyes gazed at a nearly lifeless body as he made his way over to him, the other entirely unresponsive though his eyes remained open, staring lifelessly into nothingness.  
Gingka was nothing but an empty shell, his soul and his mind still there, but not exactly within their plain of reality, perhaps too far gone to ever come back.  
Even if he was to awaken, to open his eyes once more and see the light, his body would likely not last very long - not after what he had gone through, and what Alcorin himself had done to it.

He had broken him from the inside out, virtually crushed his heart in the palm of his hand just so that he could be his, so that he touch him, see him, know that he was not going to be going anywhere.

But of course he wasn't.

"It's quite odd, isn't it?.." The albino spoke to him, though he knew that his words would not reach him, "I love you so much, and yet I know you would loathe me entirely... Yet I keep you with me, even though I know you could never return my feelings... How ironic."  
He stood there before him, looking at his lifeless face that was entirely blank, unable to show emotion any longer from the endless state of lucid sleep he would eternally dwell in - though eternity was not forever.  
Alcorin went forward, placing one knee on the space between his thighs that was bear of the throne that he sat lifelessly in, his other leg bent at the knee a bit and supporting his weight from behind while his remained at his sides.  
He positioned himself so that he could see the redhead's face clearly, crimson red staring into lifeless brown, two entirely different people and yet so the same all at once.

"Most would call me crazy..." Alcorin said to no one, raising his left hand and bringing it to Gingka's right cheek, stroking the skin gently with his thumb and relishing in the small jolt that contact with him made, "That I would kill people, manipulate innocent beings, just so that I could have a comatose brother..."  
A soft breath escaped pure white lips, white skin standing out upon peach-colored flesh as he caressed his cheek gently.  
The first time they had touched, before he had finally had him in his grasp, it had been nearly the same way.  
Unresponsive, cold, and yet with a sharp tingle that came from the mere contact of his skin that he came to recognize - Alcorin honestly couldn't get enough of it.

He loved him...

Every single thing about him, pure and tainted, good and bad, his rights and his wrongs, everything.  
He brought his face closer to his, their colors standing out against each other, despite the fact that he himself didn't really have any save for the demonic red of his eyes; one would call the way that he loved him disgusting, unsightly, repulsive, but he could never care.  
They were brothers, two beings born to love each other from the beginning; but Gingka would never love him back, as he had absolutely no reason too.  
A small giggle escaped Alcorin's lips, one that crept under the skin of all who heard it, delved down into the depths of their souls and grasped hold of them, making them his to dispose of if he so wished; but despite the sound of silent joy that escaped him, it was retaliated by the wetness that ran down his cheek.

The smile faded from his face and he backed away slightly from the redhead, letting his hand leave the other's soft skin and reach up to wipe away at the tear that unwittingly trickled down his face.

He was... Crying?..

No, it wasn't him, it was...

A soft growl protruded from him, gritting his teeth together slightly as his eyes responded with their deathly glow as he realized what it was.

 _"I thought I got rid of him..."_

No.

He had never gotten rid of him, and he may never be able to - he would always be there, but he had made very sure that he was never coming out into the light of day ever again.  
And once this was over, and he had finally rid himself of those damned pests that chased after him, that sad little child would have never existed.  
Technically, he never even had.  
Alcorin stood upright, bringing himself away from his brother who remained unresponsive; but with how he hoped and knew things would go, that wouldn't last forever.

"Excuse me, dear brother..." The albino said politely, a blank and sour look on his face, "I have a little... **Friend**... I need to talk too..."

Turning around with a small whip of his robes, Alcorin strode across the hall in the opposite direction to which he had came, allowing himself once more into a place that existed only on a plain between one world and the other.


	14. Chapter 13 - Nothing But Shadows

Chapter 13 - Nothing But Shadows

* * *

"You have no idea when to quit, do you?"

Alcorin's voice was nothing short of a hiss, a guttural lacing of amusement and anger all mixed into one while disgust and malice decorated it like the icing atop a cake.  
His footsteps were slow, yet all the more intimidating as he stalked his way forward, thigh-high boots tapping ever so lightly on the floor that was the same color as everything else that surrounded him - pale blue, highlighted by white like his pigmentionless skin, though focusing only on the one thing that he had come here for.  
Crimson red eyes, devoid of light like the abyss, narrowed dangerously with their deathly glow that ran daggers through another of who was already fading.  
But whatever state he would ever be in, Alcorin couldn't give a damn.

He glowered down towards the ethereal being that had once been able to just barely stand upright, now sprawled out on the floor while the surreal form it took was evidently beginning to fade, the fact that it had once been able to take a human form nearly incomprehensible but for Alcorin's eyes.  
He constantly found himself pleased from the state that he had left him to rot in, though he was simultaneously agitated by the fact that he still hung on with what little strength he had left.  
But despite his irritation of this pathetic little being, Alcorin couldn't help the chuckle that came from deep in his throat, born of pure amusement and malice as he crouched down the ethereal being that could even take the form of light as it did now.  
Irises of crimson red narrowed, a smile of the sweetest kind laced with mercilessness and wrath making their way upon white lips as he watched the other's eyes - they could barely be called eyes anymore - widen in fear at the sight of him, its body quaking in the horrific emotion that flooded through its veins at the other's presence.  
It was the one thing that amused him to no end, filled him to the brim with a sadistic joy that made up part of his entire being, created a lust for its suffering that could never be tamed.

Utterly _pathetic_ and so dearly vain.

"Just _look_ at you..." Alcorin mocked in a high whisper, his voice decorated with venom and flowering with a sadistic amusement, "Reduced down to nothing more than a pile of fading lights... And yet _somehow_ , you still always manage to be a burden that I end up having to worry about."  
Crimson eyes watched in amusement as the smaller being tried to move away from him with the little strength that it had left - but even it were to get anywhere, there was no escape from him anyway.  
It couldn't escape from a place like this, that it had been condemned to as just a former self, the last thing that existed in the physical world of something - or someone - else.  
A laugh shook Alcorin's shoulders, watching with predatory eyes as all of its attempts remained futile, the chains that had been wrapped eternally around it never letting it go anywhere, which was the only reason as to why it remained. By now, it was as good as dead - technically, it had never even truly been alive, in a sense.

"You _honestly_ think you could ever get away from me?..." Alcorin questioned with a malicious smirk, relishing in the fear that cascaded from the other being and feeding on it like lust, "I was here first, remember?.."  
In one swift motion, the albino had taken hold of the other being by what was physically left of a neck, pressing it up against the large column that stood halfway into the center of the large room, the remnants of a startled and fearful yelp escaping from an almost non-existent mouth, fading away like an echo with the beads of like that descended from its body.

"You are nothing but a pathetic little shadow..." Alcorin went on, his voice a hiss rattling with hate and disgust, "You always were, because I was the one that came before you... And _you_ were the most disgusting thing that I had ever laid eyes on... And now _look_ at where you are. Exactly where you should've been the entire time..."  
His grip on the smaller's throat did not loosen, a low groaning sound emanating from the being that he had problem in hurting, the guttural bubbling of strangulation existing as nothing but an echo for something that could barely even speak as it was.

"You cried for him..." Alcorin specified, bringing his face close to the other's which could barely be made out, "You cried for him, and I am the one who cried in your place out there... It never mattered what you do to try and get through again, and it never mattered how much you ever felt for dear Gingka!..."  
The albino's voice was dripping with venom, his words quite literally poisonous to those he chose to hear it.  
The weakest sound of pained whimpering just barely reached his ears, a sound that pleasured him in the sadism that he craved to feel; he knew he may as well enjoy it, as this was one of the last times that he would ever make any remote contact with this pathetic little being that would never see the light of day ever again.

" _You_..." Alcorin began, his voice slow and dangerous, overflowing with hatred and unfathomable malice that cascaded from him in his aura topped with control and insanity, "Are _never_ coming back..."  
There was no gentleness to be found as Alcorin squeezed the ethereal being's neck harder, the faintest of cries escaping its form but not entirely audible, its body glowing bright and yet weakly with the mere form of energy that it took as life threatened to be taken from it all in one moment.  
Then, all at once, Alcorin's grip loosened and he let the entity drop to the floor with barely a sound, the softest sound of laughter escaping his lips as he witnessed the pathetic weakness of the other.

"Either way, you don't even really matter..." The albino continued, mocking the ethereal being into the near insanity that it had been drowned in for years, the mental and emotional torture that was ceaseless upon its being, "The only one who _does_ matter, is who you would've been..." Alcorin crouched down once more, looking at the little being on the floor who's incoherent eyes stared at him with fear and forgotten pleas.  
"He's no less pathetic than you, and soon enough you and him won't be able to even _see_ the outside..." A light giggle escaped his lips as he spoke, taking great pleasure in the mental tole that his words beat into the much weaker entity, "You were nothing but a shadow from the very start, always destined to be thrown to the side by _me_."

A laugh emitted from his pigmentionless self, even the insides of his mouth the same as most of his exterior - entirely free of pigment.  
Narrowed eyes of crimson red were alit with their deathly glow, the mere sight of his lightless irises enough to strike fear into the hearts of anybody as he turned and stalked his way out just like he had coming in.  
Upon the silence broken by his footsteps as he readied himself to leave the world devoid of both reality and fantasy, the only other thing that he could be heard was the barely audible whimpering of a small, and deemed worthless, being.

 _"..Gingka..."_...

* * *

After following Dynamis for quite some time, Tithi had been able to find the Mist Mountain Shrine with little difficulty.  
As time went on, he even managed to make his way through the maze that lead into temple, made so that any trespassers or those unwanted or not deemed worthy would get lost and eventually leave - that, or they would be stuck for the rest of their days until they eventually died of starvation or dehydration.  
Dynamis had said that only when people were deemed worthy to him, would he guide them through the maze and allow them entry into the Mist Mountain Shrine of which he had guarded through his life, as well as all of his predecessors that had come before him - he had once described it as some sort of an heirloom, for a temporary lack of better words.  
Tithi, now aged at seventeen, had learned how to navigate his way through the maze with very little of Dynamis's help, something that he had learned from the Guardian himself after he had gone back with him to the Mist Mountain Shrine after the defeat of Nemesis 7 years ago. The 2 of them were well acquainted with each other - friends, even - and though Tithi would leave and venture out from time to time, he would always find his way back to the Shrine that his dear friend still guarded even to this day.  
The Legendary Blader had departed from the temple once more about 7 months ago - much longer than his usual trips through the country, and after long journeys through deserts, tundras, forests, and mountains, he once more made his way back to a place that he would even call some sort of home.  
Tithi made his way to the entrance for the Mist Mountain Shrine, heading inside with no care in the world as he delighted in the thought of seeing the Guardian again after being gone for over half a year, finding himself coming immediately into the maze that had trapped so many people and even lead them into their untimely demises, their bones and skeletons probably having already crumbled away into dust, or they were just in places that nobody looked and had no idea that they were still there.

Probably not, though...

Hoisting his bag up on one of his broad shoulders, Tithi recalled his knowledge that he had built up through the years that he had spent with Dynamis in the temple, knowing the maze well enough so that he could get through alright; even so, he did occasionally need help from the Guardian that had protected this Shrine for very well his whole life.  
Closing his eyes, Tithi concentrated and focused on the silence around him, mentally calling out to Dynamis to give him a bit of aid in making his way through, because every time he had come here, it always seemed like it had changed, shifted, like the tectonic plates beneath the crust of the earth they all lived on.

But there was nothing.

Eyes of light blue opened themselves once more, and Tithi found himself thoroughly confused.

There was nothing here.

Dynamis's voice was nowhere to be heard, and even when the Guardian didn't speak to lead him along, there was always that faint presence that seemed to pull him, manually guiding his way through the simple energy that radiated off of his fellow Legendary Blader.

"Dynamis?" Tithi called out, his voice and his face showing his confusion - the Guardian had always known when somebody entered the temple, and when it was him, he was always there to guide him through the maze when need be.  
Tithi would be able to find his way through it eventually, of course, with the things that Dynamis had told him and taught him while he had spent his time in the Shrine. The purplette furrowed his brows together, his lips pressed together in a thin line as a wave of concern came over him - Dynamis was not one to ignore his call, or that of those that he trusted to be in the Mist Mountain Shrine.

Could it be that he wasn't here?... No.

Dynamis was always here.

Save for his time travelling with Gingka and them on their quest to defeat the resurrected God of Destruction, the Guardian never left the Shrine that was his birthright to protect.  
Tithi sucked in a deep breath before letting it out, the simple act of living seeming to echo throughout the abnormally silent temple; even so, the Legendary Blader made his way through the maze that acted as a defense system, somehow constantly changing despite it all being simple stone that was predicted never to move.  
With the mysteries that cascaded around Mist Mountain itself, Tithi wouldn't be surprised if the maze _did_ shift on its own.  
He had once asked Dynamis, but he had never given him a direct answer.  
Recalling some of what Dynamis had taught him earlier in life within the Mist Mountain Shrine, Tithi soon found himself in a place that - though had been gone from his sight for a long time - was very familiar to him.  
The Mist Mountain Shrine itself, the very place that Dynamis guarded with his life no matter the cost - but even now that he was inside, thankfully not getting lost in the maze that had trapped so many souls and left so many hopeless despite his knowledge of it given by Dynamis, the Guardian was nowhere to be seen.  
Tithi usually always saw him by the throne that stood at the end of the room, perched much like a bird of prey, icy eyes staring down at those who dared enter his temple even though he would deem them worthy.

"Dynamis?" Tithi called out again, hoping that his friend would hear him now that he was properly inside of the Shrine, "Can you hear me?... Dynamis?"

No answer.

 _"What the hell is going on?..."_ Tithi wondered to himself, a seed of dread now planting itself in the bottom of his stomach, feeling like a heavy rock was placed there as he found that the Guardian wasn't anyway in this area.  
Tithi would've thought that Dynamis hadn't heard him, but that was entirely illogical.  
Dynamis practically _was_ Mist Mountain.  
He knew when someone came near the Shrine, when someone set foot into the sacred place that he and his ancestors had guarded for eternity, saw all of those with cold eyes upon even colder yet beautifully sculpted features, saw them, tested them, decided whether or not they were worthy of setting foot into his birthright.  
And most of all, Dynamis heard them, spoke in a voice that echoed through heads like a specter, eternally watching, always everywhere while he stayed in one place. Tithi didn't know that much about the many Guardians of the Mist Mountain Shrine, but he _knew_ that there was no way Dynamis hadn't heard him, if he was here. But he always here.

"Dynamis, this isn't funny.." The purplette said, furrowing his eyebrows together against his dark skin, walking further inside of the temple as he looked around, light blue eyes trying to find something - _anything_ \- of the Jupiter Blader, "Dynamis, are you here?"  
Tithi set his bag down by the stairs that lead up to the small platform that the throne stood on, practically engraved into the wall itself but for a different mixture of colors than just the graying blackness of stone.  
The Legendary Blader breathed out through his nose, his footsteps echoing in his ears as he made his way through the Shrine, heading into another area through an archway into a much bigger room that of the 'entrance hall', if one wanted to call it that.

"Dynamis!" Tithi called again, confusion being replaced by worry at the lack of answer that he received, only the silence responding to him with a ringing in his ears that he honestly didn't like. The air around him seemed colder as he walked along the wall, stopping right at the beginning of a few stairs that lead up to another small platform - much like the one in the great hall that Dynamis always resided in, though not nearly the same.  
"Dynamis?..." Tithi called out once more, his voice shaking slightly as goosebumps made their way onto the skin of his arms, finding himself suddenly uneasy as he stood there with no response to his call.

Something wasn't right...

Something _definitely_ wasn't right...

What was that sound?

A fly?

There were no flies that ever came into the Mist Mountain Shrine - at least none that Tithi had ever seen. There weren't even many insects at all, save for the few ants that lay crawling around and the spiders that likely lurked in the corners of the high ceilings.  
Breathing in softly, the purplette coughed slightly as he gagged, putting a hand over his nose as he just realized the smell that lingered in this spot.  
The air had been fairly clean and fresh everywhere else, with the smallest hint of dust from the stone that made up the shrine - what on earth was that smell?

Making sure only to breath through his mouth as he covered his nose with his hand, Tithi turned as he tried to find the source of wherever that horrid stench was coming from - he found it.

Tithi's heart nearly stopped beating all at once, his eyes widening as he breath got caught in his throat at the sight before him.  
Tithi's stomach lurched forward almost violently at the sight that lay before his eyes, his blood seeming to freeze and his throat feeling as though it enclosed around himself and prevented him from breathing.

He had found Dynamis.

Sprawled out beneath a pillar, body stiff with rigor-mortis and likely hard and cold to the touch from the lack of blood flowing.  
Someone appeared to have tried to place his body in a more ceremonial manner, though it didn't last long as his muscles had tightened over the time-span of however long he had been dead for. His neck had visibly been twisted or broken in some way, flies and even a few visible maggots feeding away at his rotting flesh that gave off the acrid smell of disgust.  
Tithi's hand fell away from his nose, not caring how much of the rotting stench that he inhaled as he stared at Dynamis's body in horror and disbelief.

When he had left, 7 months ago, everything had been fine.

The Guardian had met looked at Tithi, standing in the entrance of the Temple where the younger blader was to say his temporary goodbyes - Dynamis said, as he always did, that he would be there as he always was, waiting for him to return from whatever adventure he would have.  
Now, Tithi's stomach contorted, twisting and writhing as he took in the sight before him and stumbled backwards, falling back onto his hands with his mouth hanging open in a horrid way.

Rotting flesh, twisted neck, flies, maggots...

With something in his throat pushing upwards, the pit of his stomach lurching uncomfortably and even painfully, his gag reflex kicking in and causing him to cough, Tithi half-flipped himself onto his hands and knees and vomited onto the ground.  
Turning up everything that he had eaten that day, and perhaps yesterday as well, Tithi vomited it all onto the ground as the image of Dynamis's rotting dead body - that lay over several meters away - stayed glued into his mind and taped behind his eyelids.  
The warm smell of vomit in his nose made his stomach lurch forward once more and caused him to vomit again, practically covering the ground below him in the former contents of his stomach. Coughing up the last of everything that was in him, Tithi stared down at the floor that was covered in his stomach acids and still-digesting food that made him kneel in his own filth.  
A ragged sob escaped him once he was done gagging and coughing up the bile that made it's way into his throat.  
All that was to be heard now was the choked sobs and strangled cries that Tithi screamed out with nothing left to lose...

* * *

It wasn't long before mid-day when Zyro and the others had arrived at Kasama - or one part of it at least. Kira had said that the other half of Kasama was more along the road to the northwest, more surrounded by mountains than this half of the city was, and Maru had specified that by looking at her bracelet-map that she still held up in front of her.  
Now, all of them were at the edge of the small city that descended away from Mito, trying to plan out what their next move was going to be, seeing as how they had gotten the information that Alcorin could possibly be somewhere near or on the many mountains that surrounded the valley. Of course, the pages of the book that Maru had photographed never said specifically about which mountains any of those temples or shrines had been located on or near.  
For all they knew, the book was probably decades old and the information in it may have been worthless.  
Currently, all of them were near the main road in a small field where they could discuss their plans for their next actions in peace before they headed off to do whatever their decision was to be.

"So, which mountain are we checkin' first?" Benkei questioned, putting his hands on his hips while looking down towards Madoka and Maru, who were both sitting down on the yellowing grass that still managed to keep most of its green color.  
Madoka glanced up towards her friend.  
"Well, there's obviously too many mountains for us to look over." The brunette said simply, "And most of Kasama is in a valley made up by mountains." Turquoise orbs looked back towards the map that Maru presented.  
The small mechanic was holding up her bracelet-arm with her opposite one, since her one arm was getting sore from her having to hold it up constantly.

"The best option we really have is to try and find out if there's anything around here."

"What if there's nothing that can tell us for sure?" Eight questioned once Madoka finished talking. The woman looked over towards the bluenette before looking away and sighing through her nose.  
"I don't know.." She said almost hopelessly - none of them were entirely ashamed to admit that they had no idea if they were going to find anything or not, but not knowing what exactly was going on entirely wasn't a comfortable feeling for most of them, "It's the only thing that we actually have to go on, though..." Madoka looked up and past Ren and Kite towards the one person in their party that didn't entirely seem to care about their situation all to much before speaking again, ".. How much is there to know about this place, Kira?"  
A single eye, the color of fool's gold, widened in the slightest bit as the name of its owner was called, all other eyes turning towards the teen in question.  
The pastel-haired blader turned his head towards the brunette woman for a moment, looking at her as if he had not heard the question and had simply paid attention to his name - Madoka seemed about to repeat what she asked before Kira looked away in the slightest bit and spoke.

"There's not much to say about it, really..." He said with apparent boredom, "The part of it that's in the valley is more quiet than it is up here.. Not by much though... There are a couple shrines around town, but other than that it's mainly just a bunch of neighborhoods.." Kite raised an eyebrow at the shorter male.  
"And what about the mountains around here?" The male brunette questioned, glasses catching the reflection of the light ever so slightly.  
"Not much to say about those either." The Bahamoote blader said plainly, taking one hand and flicking his wrist in the side while his opposite arm remained crossed over his chest, "Honestly, it's a pretty boring place. I never looked to much into it myself."

"Then how do you know so much?" Ren asked, a confused tone in her voice.

Kira simply responded with a bland, "I just do." As he had said previously before when Shinobu had asked him. Madoka lifted one finger to her chin and held it there for a moment in thought, considering the vague answer that the Bahamoote blader had given them.  
"I guess that means we should more or less check out the other part of Kasama..." She speculated, "It might be able to tell us more since it's probably the closest to all the mountains around here." Madoka placed both hands at her sides, using them to help lift herself off the ground and onto her feet; Maru followed suite, stretching out her legs a bit once she was standing.

"How much farther do we have to go?" Ren asked, hoisting her light backpack up on her shoulders.  
"Just down the main road, really..." Kira answered simply, not paying it any mind as Shinobu's eyes flickered over towards him before looking away.  
Maru, who had been lifting her wrist up to check on the map in her bracelet, lowered her arm back down to her side.  
"Well, let's get going!" The manager said readily, "Better sooner rather than later." Madoka gave a small smile towards her large friend, before adjusting the strap of her backpack over her shoulder.  
"It shouldn't take us long to get there, either way." She said, and made her way off of the uncomfortable field of grass that was dry from the heat plaguing them. Maru followed quickly behind her, and all of them following on the sides and behind, legs aching from the amount of walking that they had continuously been doing for at least 4 days now.  
Even so, none of them really complained - save for Eight, but that was now only at certain times. They were all well aware of what they were out here for in the first place; complaining could wait for later.  
Zyro, who was still unnaturally silent for himself, glanced over his shoulder towards Kira, who remained at the back of the group. The pastel-haired blader didn't spare him a glance in return, though he may have known that the ginger-ravenette was looking at him - it was hard to tell with Kira.  
He definitely seemed to know quite a bit about Kasama, even if he claimed that he had never looked into the small city itself that much.

Zyro almost wanted to ask why that was, but he knew that Kira wouldn't give him a very direct answer - it was better not to anyway... He turned his eyes away, looking forward yet looking at the ground all the same.  
"Honestly..." Ren said with a sigh - Zyro turned his head, seeing as how it sounded like she was talking to him. The blonde hadn't been looking at him, but it definitely sounded like she was trying to reserve her voice mainly to talk only to Zyro. "If we chase Alcorin all the way around Japan only to find out he's not even here, I am going to flip something!" The Phoenix blader said heatedly, before looking over at Zyro with a slightly agitated look in her eyes, "Ya feel, Zyro?" Zyro just stared at her for a moment, slightly confused on what to say right then.  
It took a few moments before he was actually able to get something out from his mouth.  
"Uuhh, yeah..." The Fire Blader said with a tone of awkwardness that was not like him, and forced a small smile onto his face with the corners of his mouth, "I feel.."

"I'm sure he'll be somewhere around here." Kite said, pushing his glasses up on his nose with his middle finger, "He could be anywhere, yeah, but I think we have more of a chance in Japan than anywhere else from we got with that book." Ren sighed through her nose.  
All of them stopped at a crosswalk, letting a few cars pass before walking to the other side of the street.  
"Well, he's obviously good at hiding, I guess.." The blonde said, thinking back to how they had all once been clueless about the fact that Alcorin had been right underneath them, "But if it actually finding him, I'd look everywhere humanly possible for the guy..." Ren's chocolate brown eyes shifted their way over to the boy that walked beside her, his own sky blue irises the same as they always were, beautiful.  
But they lacked what she loved about them.  
She would've asked if he was alright, with the solemn expression on his face that barely left, with how tightly his lips seemed pressed together in a silence that made everything feel empty and meaningless, but Zyro have very well been tired of hearing the same question over and over again out of pity and concern.

No - just concern.

Without anything to say to him that would make him feel better - nothing likely would -, Ren looked away from her friend and instead turned her gaze towards Kite with their small conversation. Zyro was as silent as Kira, perhaps even more so with how little he kept saying nowadays seeing as how things had turned out 4 days ago.  
He wanted to find Alcorin just as much as any of them did, but not exactly for the same reasons. It had been undeniably hard, and the guilt and anxiety still gnawed away at him bit by bit with the constant force of tears every now and then, but Zyro had already come to terms with the fact that Gingka was dead.  
A few days back, when he had actually told all of them the newly found truth, he had also - for a moment - thought that he wanted to get back at Alcorin for what he had done to the redhead; all the suffering that he had put him through, making him live his final moments in a coma... But what had come out of his mouth was different.  
It wasn't just about them now, and it certainly wasn't about Gingka anymore... Now it was about what Alcorin was going to do to the rest of the world, what was going to happen now that everything had fallen into place on his terms.  
All of it had been for nothing, and they all knew it, though they wouldn't say it. And that sociopath had left enough scars to last them the rest of their lives.

Shaking his head slightly with a small breath, Zyro raised his eyes from the ground and simply followed blindly in the middle of the group as they decided on their plans and made their way back towards the main highway to head towards the main part of Kasama.  
All the while he lived on with the voice in the back of his head that he had grown used to, that had grown weaker and weaker with every passing moment, which somehow only fed to the dull ache in his chest...

* * *

It had not been a long while before both Sakyo and Takanosuke came upon the small town of Ibaraki.  
Very few cars passed on the road; the few that did were driving away from Ibaraki, while only 2 had headed towards it - but maybe they were just passing through. The two bladers walked briskly up the small hill that would lead them into the small town, still keeping to the side of the road in case of any oncoming cars.  
The heat of the sun of summer beat down on them relentlessly, though Sakyo seemed not to be bothered much by it while Takanosuke repeatedly whipped the sweat away from his forehead, a few of his blonde curls sticking to his face which rather annoyed him.  
The trees were the only things that offered shade to the two of them, and Takanosuke was the only one that really bothered to bask in it while Sakyo just moved along with the Griffin Blader following along behind him.  
There wasn't much shade to be found now that they came over the hill, the warm sun seeming to make the paved road shine as he shone down on the small town of Ibaraki, which - as Takanosuke had described - didn't seem to be very big.  
It was decently sized, at least, but it was definitely quite small.  
Standing atop the small hill that lead into it, both bladers were able to get a fairly good look at the majority of it, but it really wasn't too much.

"Seems a bit smaller than I remember it..." Takanosuke speculated with the tilt of his head, "Maybe it actually got smaller.." Crimson red orbs glanced over towards the boy beside him, before looking back to the small town that stood before them.  
If Takanosuke wanted to try and look for Alcorin so badly, then this may as well be the best starting point - but the Dragoon Blader doubted that they would find much.  
"Let's go." The redhead said solemnly before walking forward once more, the curly-haired blonde quickly following along behind him even though his much smaller legs ached and his head felt too hot from the beating of the sun.  
"So, what are we looking for first?" The blonde asked, sounding a bit out of breath from his light panting. Sakyo didn't answer right away - still not an uncommon thing. The redhead simply sighed internally.  
Takanosuke was the one who wanted to look for the sociopath in the first place, so shouldn't he have the slightest of idea of what they were going to look for?

Perhaps not.

"Where do you think he could actually be, Sakyo?" The blonde questioned curiously, "He probably wouldn't be anywhere around here... Unless he actually is. But probably not."

"We'll look." Sakyo said roughly, "But there is no guaranteeing we'll find anything."

"Okay.." Takanosuke replied sheepishly, rubbing his head slightly from the dull ache that protruded from the side.

 _"Probably the heat..."_ He thought to himself with slight exhaustion, _".. I_ hate _summer~..."_  
Well, he didn't entirely hate summer.  
He liked the fact that they all got out of school and were able to Beybattle with each other until the cows came home, but the heat was the one thing that made him relent it so much.  
Sighing softly, Takanosuke shook off the feeling of the small ache in his head even if it did bother him a little, and continued to follow Sakyo down the side of the street.

"I guess this place _is_ small, huh?" Takanosuke questioned in a 'now-that-I-think-about-it' way. Once more, Sakyo didn't answer, but the Griffin Blader had grown quite used to that and knew not to suspect that the redhead wasn't listening - more than likely, he was.  
"I do remember this place being a bit bigger though.." The Griffin Blader continued on, "But I guess I haven't been here in a few years. I actually used to have a lot of fun when I came here with my dad... Ow.."  
Sakyo's eyebrows lifted no more than a quarter of an inch at the softly spoken word of probable pain, stopping in his tracks as he glanced back over his shoulder to look at the boy that had stopped walking only a foot or two before he did. The blonde-haired boy had a hand placed on the side of his head, his eyes narrowed slightly in way that showed that there was something to his discomfort.

"What is it?" Sakyo questioned, turning his body more towards the Griffin Blader who seemed to have a headache of some sort from the way he held his head - probably from the heat.  
He himself wasn't as bothered by it as Takanosuke probably was, so he hadn't really noticed or suspected all that much that the boy could succumb to heat stroke if they weren't careful.

"My head hurts..." Takanosuke replied with a whine, the ache in his head now having evolved from minor to more annoying and a bit painful.

Why did it hurt so much?...

Surely, nothing was wrong, right?

It was just the heat, that was all...

But the pain in his skull only worsened. A small moan of pain made its way from Takanosuke's lips, drawing Sakyo's attention and growing concern for the one person he would even remotely consider a friend.  
"Ow..." The blonde complained, his voice an octave higher than it usually was. Eyelids closed tightly over cerulean orbs, the ache growing beyond annoyance and discomfort and instead pulsating in pain..

What was going on?...

The boy whimpered softly, before all sound was drowned out from around him except for one, singular noise that seemed to pull everything apart.  
The deep, throaty croak of a raven.  
The pain was still there, but there was dizziness, the inability to focus and a small numbness that left the blonde boy scared at what was happening.  
Cerulean orbs opened only halfway, the irises visibly shaking from confusion, from pain, from fear, and all he could think to do was look at Sakyo - to know he was there, for some sort of comfort so that he wouldn't just be left like this all on his lonesome.

But that was a mistake.

Takanosuke's eyes locked onto Sakyo's own, which held the slightest bit of concern now for the boy that was clearly suffering from something - from what, he appeared not to know. But the croak of the raven resounded in his ears, and all Takanosuke was - not Sakyo, for he seemed to be the background - but other things that flashed before him, other things that he didn't understand, that made his head ache and throb in pain.

The wings of a bird, flashes of white, red, and black... Something tapping on glass, something sharp, splatters of...

What?...

An owl, something slender and black slinking past... The cracking of glass - no, a mirror?..

A screech, screaming, sounds he couldn't describe or make out...

Then, there was nothing but Sakyo.

Takanosuke found himself breathing heavily, shaking his head weakly, his head feeling fuzzy while there was a small, lingering pain that wouldn't go away.  
Something warm dripped down from his nose, onto his upper lip, but he couldn't find himself to focus on what it was.

"Takanosuke?.." Sakyo called out, his voice edged with concern as he took a step closer to the Griffin Blader who was now bleeding from his nose.  
"I..." The blonde said weakly, staggering slightly as he moved one of his feet to turn slightly. Sakyo didn't know too much about it, but he was fairly sure this was not what happened to people with heat stroke.  
"I'm..." No other words came from Takanosuke's lips, one hand a few inches away from his face as if to put in it on his head again.  
The boy staggered backwards in his dizziness, before he collapsed completely into unconsciousness, the blood coming from his nose sliding slightly down his face at the change of angle.

"Takanosuke!"

Sakyo caught him before he hit the ground.


	15. Chapter 14 - Winners And Losers

Chapter 14 - Winners And Losers

* * *

Day in, and day out, for the last 4 days, were all spent with nothing to do.

The ex-DNA bladers were beginning to grow somewhat anxious without their leader, and as the days came and went, they were still leaderless with Genjuro being the closest person that they had to take orders from. But even the Genbu blader had not much to say in command, as Kira had - as far as they all knew - left no one in charge while he was absent with Zyro and his friends doing... Whatever they were doing.  
So they did the only thing that they knew reasonable to do unless Kira said otherwise or put someone else in charge in his place (which he hadn't), which was to follow some of the last orders that he had given to them - to behave themselves, and not stir up trouble.  
Kira had made a point about them having a reputation to keep up if they were ever to become Japan's Representatives, and that making any trouble for anything wouldn't do anything to support that.  
But it was without doubt that most - if not all - people were cheering for the WBBA, but even so, the ex-DNA Bladers obliged to Kira's orders.  
It didn't exactly change much, now that they weren't working for Doji with the DNA, but it still left them entirely clueless on what exactly they were meant to do in Kira's absence other than that. Other than stay in their current living quarters and find their own things to occupy themselves, some of them tended to wander around the city (Captain Arrow tended to look into bookstores in search of... Whatever it was he was into..), and they all went to the Bey Park regularly to spare against each other in order to prepare for the upcoming battles awaiting in the Bridge To The Future Tournament.

Suggesting that the Director ever started it up again, that was.

It was a mystery to too many people as to why it was brought to abrupt halt in the first place, but no one was arguing against it as Director Otori must reasonably have a good explanation as to why he was doing so.  
But whatever reason he had, he definitely wasn't planning on releasing it out to the public. Many of them found it quite aggravating, from the sheer fact that they had nobody to engage battle with other than each other - and they had done that countless times in the past when the DNA had trained them. Zyro and his gang were off to who-knows-where, and Kira had more than likely gone with them for the reason that he owed Zyro for saving his life, so battling all of them was entirely out of the question, which left them with no one in their league other than themselves to battle with.  
That's what they did now, Spike pitting against Yoshio for about the 3rd time since Kira's absence from Metal Bey City.  
The others all stood off to the side and simply watched, though Genjuro simply leaned against a small pillar that was there simply for decoration while chewing his dandelion stem, while Baihu was simply laying on his back with his arms behind his head and staring up at the sky, having grown bored from watching the countless battles between his comrades, even if it was _was_ for their training.  
There wasn't much to see in the sky except for blue, and the clouds that covered most of it even though it was just bearably hot out.  
The raven-haired blader took out arm out from under him and wiped it across his forehead, able to feel the beads of sweat that had formed because of the heat.  
Sighing, the black-haired blader rolled over onto his stomach, the feeling of cement against his back being relieved from him and instead having his abdomen pressed against the hard stone.

"It's really hot out here.." The child said, making up for most of the silence other than the cries of Spike and Yoshio and the repeated clashing of their beys in the Beypark stadium.  
"Well, it's summer.." Said one of the other ex-DNA bladers that had come back with them from the DNA headquarters after it had collapsed, using his basic uniform shirt to fan himself.

"No pain, no gain, they always say." Captain Arrow said, seeming to have little trouble with the heat as he stood on the platform they were all on, watching Spike and Yoshio train without seeming to grow bored - of course, that was more than likely his whole thing with justice and victory and what-not.  
The other ex-DNA blader simply huffed, giving up on trying to fan himself from the current ache in his arm, "Says you.." He mumbled, leaning back on one hand as he crossed his legs, "How is it even possible to train in this weather."

"Master Kira was always able to do it." Baihu stated, supporting his head with his hands while his elbows lay uncomfortably on the concrete, "He's able to beat all of us.. I dunno where he is right now though.." Genjuro grunted, opening his blue eyes and ceasing his chewing on the stem in his mouth.  
"None of us do, Baihu." The Genbu blader said simply, which was just stating the obvious, "No doubt he's with Zyro and his gang somewhere, though.." Captain Arrow looked back over his shoulder, raising one eyebrow from underneath his mask.

"He'll be back sometime, surely." The dark bluenette said.  
"It's been 4 days." Baihu said flatly.  
"Well, maybe it's something important that's going to take awhile." The yellow-eyed blader replied with a shrug, "We can't exactly do anything about it. All we can do is wait."  
His eyes glanced back over to Yoshio and Spike as the battle ended with Yoshio's Golemn laying on the ground behind him while Spike was victorious.  
"Hmph.." Genjuro grunted softly, "Whatever you say, 'Captain'. Kira's not coming back so soon, though, I can tell you that.."  
Of course, they all sort of knew that.  
Genjuro had already told them awhile ago the whole deal with Kira and his thing with 'helping' Zyro and his friends with apparent personal matters, so they knew not expect him to return so soon.  
The dirty-blonde himself didn't know what the ordeal they were handling even was, but he had a feeling in the back of his skull that it did have something to do with why the Bridge To The Future tournament had been postponed.  
They were pretty close to Director Otori, from what the ex-DNA bladers knew, so them being elsewhere other than the city could be the cause of it, seeing as how they were the main contenders.

But what could be so important that they would have to bring the tournament to a halt altogether?  
Surely, there wasn't much that was as important as deciding the fate of the Beyblade generation, just as many before all of them had done, was there?  
Why was suddenly getting sentimental over the fate of the Beyblade world?

Genjuro simply scoffed softly at himself, shaking his head a bit before closing his eyes again and resuming his chewing of the stem in his mouth.  
Whatever it was, it wasn't something that they needed to worry about...

* * *

"Hey, Sichiro." Greeted the all-too-familiar voice of Ayano to Sichiro's ears, drawing the ravenette's attention over to the greenette who walked briskly towards him. Black eyebrows furrowed in confusion as the superior came up him.  
"Hey, Ayano." The long-haired man greeted in return, "What are you doing here? I thought you said you were going to take the day off after yesterday?" Ayano huffed softly through her nose and nodded her head.  
"Yeah, I _was_.." She said with a sigh, "But Tamako called in sick this morning, so I had no choice to come in. Either way, we do have shit to get done around here with this whole ordeal the Director has us working on." Sichiro let a small smile creep onto his face with a soft chuckle, though he did what he could not to laugh.  
"So..." Ayano continued with a small slouch of her shoulders, "I guess I can go through another day of work before I get a day off... Won't kill me, as far as I know."

"Y-yeah.." Sichiro said awkwardly, steel grey eyes glancing back towards the computer screen in front of him for a moment before looking back to her.  
"But enough about me." The greenette said dismissively, "How are you doing, now?"

"Uhh... Me?.."

"Yeah, from yesterday, I mean." Ayano explained, raising a green eyebrow with a look of concern in cerulean eyes, "You weren't looking too good while we were over there, and you were acting pretty damn weird.. Is that... Something you want to talk about, or-"

"No, no, no!" The raven-haired blader said hurriedly, mentally slapping himself for the sound of urgency and slight panic in his voice, "It was just... Uh... Anxiety, that's all.."  
Ayano's lips were pulled tightly together with a raised eyebrow, inevitably catching the way that her colleague had sounded so panicked when she asked if he needed to talk about it.  
"Okay..." She said flatly, "Anxiety over what?" The breath that Sichiro gave out was a shaky one, but it wasn't something that anybody would notice but for himself.

He knew Ayano.

She was a very respectful person, and did respect other's boundaries and such, but when it came to people she was close to - like himself, as it seemed - she would push if she was worried.  
He couldn't exactly blame her for it, since he had known quite a lot of people like that back when...  
"Just being away from home, really." The ravenette said with a small shrug, and didn't meet the woman's eyes, "It's always been this weird thing with me, but I'm fine now... Honest." The greenette stared at him for a moment, looking near like a stone statue as she looked at her colleague for what seemed like hours.  
A few of their other colleagues glanced over at her with weird looks before going back to their work. Only after what seemed like forever did Ayano sigh and give the ravenette a small smile.  
"If you say so, Sichiro..." She said with a small bit of hand, "Don't wear yourself too much, okay?"

"Okay.." Sichiro replied automatically as Ayano walked past him, but not before placing a hand on his shoulder in reliance. Her hand broke contact with him as she left, walking briskly off to her work post where she would likely spend at least half of the day.  
All at once, Sichiro let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, his heart beating erratically against his rib cage as if trying to break out.  
He should've figured that she might ask about yesterday while they were at the Tokyo WBBA headquarters, with the way he had been acting and reacting to a lot of things.

Really, it wasn't that much of a lie with it being anxiety, because it was indeed that.

But it was caused by something far different than just being away from home, and Sichiro had always preferred never to think about it and leave it all behind while he continued on in the present.  
But apparently, the world just wouldn't have it.  
A sigh escaped his pale lips before he forced all of it to the back of his mind once again, where it should have remained if not for the Director telling him where they were going not 2 days ago - but it wasn't Tsubasa's fault either.  
Raven hair moved along with him as he shook his head a bit before turning back in his chair towards what he had previously been working on, focusing on nothing but that until he was told to do otherwise. But despite focusing on the documents in front of him, Sichiro's steel grey eyes looked down towards the keyboard in thought.

But no... He couldn't focus on that, he had no need too.

He shouldn't...

He had already sealed his fate a long, long time ago back on that day - it didn't matter now...

Not _now_ , but it would eventually.

Why did he have to come here in the first place?...

They would have never known if he hadn't...

Once more, the raven-haired man mentally slapped himself, cursing at the thoughts running through his head, the events replaying that he had never even bothered to remember until now.

But it was fine... It was all fine...

With a heavy sigh, Sichiro raised his hands up to the keyboard and locked his eyes once more onto the screen and resumed the work he had been doing before Ayano had come to speak to him...

* * *

It definitely wasn't a long walk to the other half of Kasama in the valley area from where they had been, and it had barely taken them a half hour to do so and have themselves settle on a bench placed on the sidewalk so that they could discuss what they were going to be doing around here. Since they had gotten the possibly helpful information they had from Mito, it was already a bit clear to a few of them with the basics of what the main idea was.  
As it seemed, Kasama wasn't that large, but it was decently sized enough that they would likely be able to find something around the area.

"So." Ren began, being the first to speak to everyone around once they were settled, "I'm guessing we're gonna go ask around or something?"

"Sort of the plan, yeah." Benkei said plainly, which earned a sweat-drop from Maru who was sitting on the bench they were parked at, her legs swinging over the edge without the ability to touch the ground yet.  
Madoka shook her head slightly before looking towards the shorter girl.  
"Well, I was thinking that we should probably find a hotel to stay at for the night, so that we have a place to meet up later if we go looking." The brunette explained, "It seems better than just walking around for a few hours before finding one in the dead of night and having nowhere to stay."  
It only took Kite a glance over at the blonde to know that Ren was probably thinking of a certain TV show reference, but doing the suggested was something that they all knew and could realize was a very logical and smart thing to do.  
"How many are even around here?" Zyro questioned, which was rather surprising to most of them from how quiet he had been lately; no one said anything about him deciding to speak.  
"I'll look." Maru announced and raised her wrist up close to her, and went to press the small button on it to bring up the screen before someone else spoke words of helpfulness -it just happened to be Kira.  
"There's a few.." He said with a bland tone, leaning against a lamp post right next to them with his arms crossed, "There's actually one just a few blocks away, if that'll do.."

"Okay, seriously, _how_ do you know this?" Ren asked, narrowing her eyes slightly in suspicion of the ex-DNA blader. Kira opened his only eye which had previously been closed, looking over towards the blonde female with the one iris.  
"I just do, now leave it..." He said firmly, though with no real threat behind it. It was obvious that no matter how many times they may ask Kira, he would respond the same way.  
Maru simply lowered her wrist back down into her lap again, the action of checking the map in her bracelet now forgotten.  
"Well... Better than nothing, I guess." Madoka said with consideration, "I say we check it out at least." Benkei let out a slightly loud yawn, stretching a bit before settling himself again.  
"I don't really care where we spend the night, but a bed is good enough for me." He commented, "We'll probably spend a couple days here, anyway."

"Probably..." Madoka muttered with a sigh, looking down at Maru as the pinkette came up beside her again, "It's probably smart to book a few nights just in case.."  
With that decided, they did exactly that.  
They walked a few blocks over the hotel that Kira had specified (though he still wouldn't spill on how he knew about it) and did as they had back in Mito - they went in 2 separate groups, since one room obviously couldn't fit all of them, and went in with a small time-frame separating them. They went in the same groups they had back at the Mito hotel, since those were the ones that everyone seemed the most comfortable with.  
All they did there was set all of their things down - with what little they had all brought - and take a moment to sit down before meeting back up in the hallway and heading out again.  
Kira and Shinobu obviously still weren't so keen on sharing the same room together (Shinobu more than Kira), but they brought themselves to simply deal with it as they were working together - even though Kira could claim otherwise.  
They devised their strategy for asking around in groups once again, seeing as how they now had a better lead on things than they had when they had first arrived in Mito - Madoka had figured that it was probably best to look into anything revolving around temples and the like around the area. The rest of them were able to agree with this, and divided themselves into the same small groups they had been in back when they were looking through Mito before splitting up and agreeing to meet back up around the hotel later.  
Shinobu, Ren, and Benkei were all paired up together again from the uneven number of people in their group, and they set off somewhere into the small city to try and do their part. Shinobu was chronically a bit hesitant with Kira being with Zyro - considering the history the two of them had, it was definitely reasonable despite Kira's vague willingness to 'help - but he didn't say anything about it.

"So are we just going to start asking around, or something?" Ren questioned as the 3 of them walked down the sidewalk, the sound of a few passing cars sounding in her ears, "How many people would even know anything about any temples around here?"

"Priests?" Shinobu suggested with a shrug, "Somebody's bound to know something around here."

"Well, yeah." Ren replied in a 'yeah, duh' kind of way, before continuing, "But seriously... Back in Mito we got something on our first day there, and that place is pretty damn big. What exactly are we going to find out in a place like this?" Benkei looked down at the blonde blader and simply smiled in what appeared to be reassurance.  
"Don't worry, we're gonna keep lookin' till we find what were looking for!" The Manager said positively, "People'll know something. They always talk in small places like this." Ren raised one of her blonde eyebrows at the purple-haired man.  
"Really?" She questioned, curiosity under-toning her voice.  
"I think.." Benkei said, suddenly looking a bit dumbfounded as he tried to remember, having only ever really been apart of Metal Bey - which was definitely a large city in itself, "But whether or not they do, there's gotta be some clues somewhere around here."

"Kira would seem to know.." Shinobu said a bit absently, "He seems to know more about this place than any of us do."

"Yeah..." Ren said thoughtfully, "I don't get why he would, though... Probably looked up something on it, maybe." The suggestion was said with a shrug, as both Ren and Benkei were just as clueless about Kira's knowledge of Kasama as the rest of them were.  
It certainly was quite weird, Kira knowing so much about Kasama while they knew almost next to nothing.  
Maru was able to look up a bit of information on different towns and cities with the help of that bracelet of hers, but it may have not even known as much as Kira apparently did. Shinobu knew well that it would do them no use to dwell on the subject, so he was given no other choice than to let it drop as they moved on and tried to figure out how exactly the 3 of them were going to gather the information they were looking for - if it was here, that was.  
But the best option that they currently had was to ask around; perhaps the others were doing the same thing with the small groups of 2 that made up the rest of them.  
With what they were looking for, all they could do was hope that they would find the answers they were looking for - anything that lead them closer to Alcorin was definitely something worth looking for...

* * *

Alcorin was a patient person. He had learned patience from the many years of confinement he had endured for all of 14 years.  
He had patience, a lot of it, and he was always willing to wait a long time - years, in fact - for something whenever necessary.  
But when it concerned that small little thing, all of it seemed to run out.  
Of course, he didn't even have to really worry about him anymore - there wasn't much of him left anyway.  
But somehow, he always managed to seep through; to find some sort of opening that would give him even the slightest peek to the physical world that he was no longer apart of.  
Of course, he could always see it, and quite frankly, Alcorin had no problem with that part. He would make him watch the pain and the suffering, the sorrow and the anguish, the death and the decay, and he would let him know that he was entirely powerless to stop it.

Alcorin took joy in other people's suffering, but when it came to _him_ , it was an entirely different story. To see him suffer, to see him so utterly weak and powerless unlike the way he had fought so hard in earlier days, was something that he just couldn't define.  
Maybe it was simply knowing that he was now the one in control - that he was the one who saw and felt and heard everything, while that little child could do nothing but sit and watch everything from behind a blank wall.  
But of course, _both_ of them saw it - they saw all of it, and to know that there would soon be nothing of him left... It was almost a sad thought, from all the battles of willpower both of them had gone through, two beings that were one and the same, fighting to both keep and regain control.  
But all in all, it wasn't that much of a depressing thought now that all of his careful planning over the years had finally come together and worked out in his favor - but of course they would.

The thought came out in a small chuckle as simply stood there in the dim lighting of edge of the stairs.  
There wasn't much light in the place anyway, but it was rather bright once the eyes were given enough time to adjust; not to mention his own would illuminate the black from time to time with their crimson glow.  
He had strode away from his brother in his barely contained rage and had stopped merely at the top of the stairs, his white robes - that were never as pure as his skin - draped around him loosely as he stood nearly motionless in the reflective silence.  
The albino's anger, however, had been decreased now that he had gotten it out of the way, and taught its source a valuable lesson for the 60th time.  
That little thing just didn't have any idea when to quit, and if Alcorin had to keep teaching him what happened until he was nothing but a pile of a broken past, then so be it.  
Eyes glowing their crimson gaze, Alcorin turned slightly and looked back over his shoulder towards the catatonic man that he called 'brother'.  
Whatever Zyro and his friends believed that they could do to stop him and get their dear Gingka back, he knew it wouldn't matter.  
He would always win on both ends, for it was the simple matter of having control of the situation - something they definitely did not have.  
Either way, it _was_ his one and only birthright.  
Crimson eyes shifted away from the catatonic redhead who was shrouded by the shadows of the large hall, looking absently towards the stone walls as he sensed the presence of his little messenger raven returning for report - of course, not that it had another choice too.  
A small smile placed itself upon snow white lips, showing through slightly to perfectly white teeth that lacked as much pigment as the rest of him did.

"I'll be back, Gingka..." The albino said absently, his eyes going back to Gingka - who was motionlessly sitting across the room - with that eerie joy dancing across them, "I just have to make sure your _friends_ are exactly where I need them... I won't let them take you away from me... I worked too long and hard for that.."  
A bitter expression crossed nearly flawless features for a moment before it was gone. With a smirk placed on a face of pale white Alcorin turned and descended down the stairs, his robes dragging behind him and falling one step at a time.  
The only thing falling behind in the silence was the faint echoing of his booted footsteps and the fading remnants of his accursed voice that had sent many people into peril with their plain mortal minds.  
Eventually, even those faded until there was nothing but a dreaded silence.  
If Gingka had even been there, had been in the rightful places of his mind, fully conscious and able to hear, feel, see... The ringing would have been nearly overwhelming.

But sadly, he was not.

All he was was an empty shell, perhaps already too long gone into his mind to ever bring back - but truthfully, whichever one he had, Alcorin did not care.  
As he weaved himself through the ornately carved stone halls of his domain that only he knew so well, he knew that everything was coming the way that he had planned for it.  
That they had - perhaps - _both_ planned for it.  
Alcorin loved every bit of Gingka, loved all of him no matter who he was, what he had done, what he didn't do.  
All of his failures, his successions, his rights, his wrongs, his good, and his bad; he loved them all.  
Which is why it didn't matter to him who he had - as long as it was only his dearest brother.  
Zyro and his little friends could never win, no matter how hard they tried.  
He would break them as much as he had too, as much as he needed too until they finally learned the lesson.  
Especially little Zyro... No matter who he was, Alcorin was not finished breaking that delicate little soul of his.  
A small giggle ringed from Alcorin's white lips at the thought; it was only the truth.  
In the end, their efforts would not matter; because when Gingka woke up, he would never be the same person.  
The solid proof of that was from the man himself, who lay motionless upon the throne with blank eyes that were open yet stared at nothing, who lay trapped within his own mind so deep that seeing the physical world was nearly impossible, and that of who properly had 10 fingers - 3 of which, on his left hand, were white.


	16. Chapter 15 - Confined Memories

Chapter 15 - Confined Memories

* * *

The last thing he remembered was falling.

Then there was nothing.

Blackness taking hold as all of his senses seemed to quit, and he was left with nothing but numbness, and his thoughts.

Then, the first thing he heard was the soft whirring of a ceiling fan - on high, as it sounded. There were... Soft footsteps, ones that he recognized but was too tired and unfocused to think about who they belonged too.  
The soft ruffling of a coat, something that he recognized... But once again, he couldn't bring himself to think about who it was.  
He knew who it was... He was just too dizzy to and tired to place the name. Suddenly, he felt the damp coldness on his forehead, and then the sharp freezing sensation of something against the side of his neck.  
The blonde hissed softly at the sudden barrage of sensations as the numbness quickly faded and left him able to feel again.  
It wasn't pleasant from the feeling of nausea that filled the pit of his stomach, the way his head ached from deep inside his skull, the dizziness that swam through him as he tried to open his heavy eyelids.  
The sound he had made drew the attention of the other person in the room, from the footsteps that made their way across the floor, and the figure that walked over to come to his side when he had opened his eyes a bit only to shut them again from his dizziness and sleep-infected self.  
A soft groan escaped his lips, turning his head slowly over to the side a bit, which did nothing to ease the ache in his head as it responded to his moment with more pressure and pain.

A whimper escaped him this time, and then he felt a hand on his head.  
Pressing down gently into his blonde curls to make him keep his head steady and relatively still, resting there to assure that he wouldn't move and make him feel worse than he already did - though that seemed nearly impossible, from how much he felt like he needed to vomit.  
With a soft sound protruding from his throat, he tried once again to open his eyes, his eyelashes quivering as he pried his eyelids open with sheer strength that he managed to muster up from somewhere. His vision swam with blurred lines and dark spots, making him stomach churn slightly from the uneasiness it came him.  
Fighting to keep his eyes open, he blinked slowly a few times as he tried to get his eyesight to clear, to see what was around him rather than to just hear, feel, smell, and taste...  
Slowly but surely, the outline of the person by his bedside became more clear, the distorted figures before his eyes slowly fading as they finally began to take on more reasonable and realistic shapes.  
As his vision cleared, so did his head and his thoughts, the ache in his skull still pulsating through his body but now able to make things out better than before.  
Finally, the name came to him...

"Sakyo?..." His voice was hoarse, his throat dry as cotton from lack of hydration and stinging as the name left his mouth.  
Sakyo, petting the top of Takanosuke's head for a moment with his fingers, simply nodded. The blonde whimpered softly, squeezing his eyes shut at the uncomfortable feeling of having a dry throat, his saliva tasting like metal in his mouth and doing nothing to help.  
Sakyo seemed to notice, since he reached over to the table beside the bed and picked up a glass of ice water, his opposite hand sliding under the blonde's head and helping him lift it slightly.  
Takanosuke groaned softly at that as his head pounded and throbbed in pain, but he did his best to open his mouth and take a few sips of the water that Sakyo offered him. It was refreshing, and almost stung as it went down his throat from the dryness and coldness colliding with each other - but it made him feel a bit better, even if his nausea still remained.  
Setting the glass back down on the table, Sakyo gently lowered Takanosuke's head back down onto the pillow, adjusting the cold rag on his forehead and the ice pack placed against his jugular vein. Takanosuke took a few moments of deep breaths as his throat finally felt lubricated before speaking again.  
"What happened?..." He asked, now able to keep his eyelids at least half-open now that his tiredness and dizziness had relatively faded away. Sakyo's crimson eyes made their way down to his own cerulean ones, that ever cold look still lingering but with something more behind them.

"You started acting strange when we arrived.." He said simply, his voice still as firm as ever, "I tried asking you what was wrong, but your nose started bleeding and you collapsed. There aren't any hospitals around so I brought you here.." Takanosuke squinted his eyes slightly as to show that he understood.  
'Here' must have been just a hotel room, as that was definitely what it looked like. Letting out a breath, the blonde slowly turned his head a bit so that he could look up towards the ceiling, groaning softly as the ache in his head pulsated; now, it was less painful than it had been when he had first awoken.  
"My guess is that it was the heat." Sakyo said, watching the younger of the 2 carefully to assure that he wouldn't do anything to cause himself further discomfort and pain.  
"It's hot in here.." Takanosuke complained softly, squinting his eyes a bit up towards the ceiling fan that spun at its highest speed.  
Evidently, from the cold cloth, to the ice pack, to the fan, Sakyo had been trying to cool him down before heat stroke did anything serious too him... His grandmother had once told him that it could send people into a coma, which is why she always had him wear a hat when he was out in the garden with her.  
But... It hadn't seemed to be the heat. Maybe it was, but it was something other than just that, and he knew it. The last thing he remembered seeing was himself falling; and before that, he remembered seeing ( _hearing, experiencing_ ) too many other things that had left him confused.  
He remembered little of them, all of them swimming around in his head, dismembered memories and distorted images that he was unable to bring to mind at the moment.

"I know." Sakyo said gently, placing his hand against the cloth on the blonde's forehead to check that it was still cold. It had lightened up now; it would be best to wet it again and help Takanosuke cool down as much as possible, "Try and rest a bit more. I'll be right back."  
Picking up the folded cloth from Takanosuke's forehead, the redhead made his way from the side of the bed and towards the small bathroom that the room contained, leaving the boy to himself for a few moments before he returned. Breathing softly through his nose, Takanosuke simply lay there with his thoughts and the drowsiness that the heat seemed to cause him.  
Maybe it was his idea in the first place to come out here - perhaps it was his own fault that this had happened to him, for not taking into consideration that the heat could very well kill him.

After all, with the summer up here, it was always bound to be deadly if one did not manage it.

Groaning softly from the faint feeling of nausea in his stomach and the ache in his head, Takanosuke just stared up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, welcoming the darkness once more as he heard the footsteps of the only other in the room come back to him; the cold dampness on his forehead returned, and it felt rather nice instead of uncomfortable, like it had when he had first awoken.  
The blonde turned his head a bit over to the side in Sakyo's direction, feeling that hand come up to the top of his once more to assure that he was stable enough to sleep.  
At that gesture, Takanosuke knew he was okay; he wouldn't ask Sakyo for anything else than that...

* * *

Both Zyro and Kira had went off in a separate direction than the other 3 groups that consisted of the 9 of them, aiming to do the same as the rest of them blatantly were - try and find any information that could lead them to Alcorin.  
Considering what they had gotten from Maru and Madoka, it was pretty clear to all of them that they were looking for anything around Kasama that could relate these temples built by worshipers of Nemesis across Japan.  
Considering Alcorin was seemingly the flesh of blood of the god himself, and he definitely seemed to show some deep respect for his long deceased father, it was rather quite a logical thing to see if they could find one of the temples that still remained standing - if there were any.

"Of course I'm paired up with you again..." Kira muttered under his breath with a sigh through his nose, a small scowl on his face as he walked beside the Fire Blader that simply looked over at him with his forlorn blue eyes.

"It could be worse, Kira." The ginger-ravenette replied, "Nobody else really likes you that much."

"And _you_ do?" Kira asked, raising his one eyebrow at the inquiry. Zyro shut his mouth at Kira's retort, and simply looked down.  
He understood that Kira - though the ex-DNA Blader had fought along side him, and helped keep him grounded and prevent him from losing his mind in the last few weeks - wasn't that found of him.  
The Bahamoote Blader didn't seem to be that fond of anybody except for, maybe, his own teammates that he had left back in Metal Bey City because of the promise that he had made to return the favor. He was sure that Kira wouldn't exactly like it if he said that he considered him a friend.  
"Honestly..." Kira sighed with a role of the eye, "I'd rather not put up with your sulking, Zyro, it's getting annoying. You're obviously upset about Gingka, but I think it would be much appreciated if you kept it too yourself."  
Zyro's eyes met Kira's own, if only from the side. The pastel-haired blader made a soft sound of disgust and looked away from him, seeing the forlorn sadness behind eyes as blue as the sky and finding himself unable to stand it.  
But why?...

"Blaming yourself isn't going to fix anything Zyro, how many times do I have to tell you before you suck it up?" Kira's fool's-gold-colored eye glanced over towards Zyro once more, irritation clear in the one iris that remained.  
"Sorry.." Zyro muttered pathetically, and Kira simply sighed in response.  
"Whatever..." He said with a sigh, "How about we actually figure out how we find out anything about these named temples?" Licking his dry lips, Zyro breathed out once before looking over towards the older boy.  
"How we going to do that?" He asked, "We don't really have that much to go on around here."

"I know a few shrines around here..." Kira said abruptly, "They might know _something_ about it."

"Okay..." Zyro drifted off awkwardly.  
It was obvious that Kira was likely the one who knew the most about Kasama, for whatever reason, and seeing as how mainly none of them knew a thing about it, it was probably best to follow him.

"How do you know so much about Kasama?" Zyro asked, looking over towards the Bahamoote Blader beside him.  
"Did I not say to drop it?" Kira asked, annoyance clear in his voice; it wasn't an uncommon thing nowadays, especially towards him. Kira looked at him for a moment, his one eye seeming to study him and leaving an intimidating imprint before the Bahamoote Blader looked away with an irritable sigh.  
"I just do, now leave it alone." Kira said with a dangerous edge to his voice, "Now come on, the closest one is halfway across town."  
Eyebrows furrowed a bit, Zyro silently followed Kira towards the shrine that he was talking about; Kira's insistence to leave the subject of how he knew so much about Kasama was the imprint behind his eyelids, the question still fresh on his lips, and despite his refusal to even discuss it, Zyro had a feeling that he knew.  
Zyro wasn't the brightest of people, but he certainly wasn't stupid, and after living in a town as small as he had all his life, he could usually tell something about a person by looking at the way they moved, acted, did things.  
He wasn't exactly the observant type either, but he could see that there was more to Kira and Kasama than simple research done in spare time.  
Despite the burning sensation in his head that told him to ask, that compelling sense of curiosity that was one of humanity's greatest dangers, something that soothed the need to know things but could also make so that he wished you had never asked or gone to investigate in the first place, Zyro kept his mouth shut.  
He swallowed with difficultly, his throat feeling dry and forcing down the urge to ask Kira the question of what he suspected. It was obvious that the pastel-haired blader wasn't in the mood for that - then again, when was he ever?  
With only emptiness left and words never said, Zyro simply followed Kira to the shrine in question while the other said no more in turn.

Kira's thoughts, however, were on more than simply just heading to the Kasama Inari Shrine that was about halfway across town. Kira, that small scowl still ghosting his face, was never one to be sentimental - he despised the mere thought of it with an intense passion that almost matched nothing else, which is why he was never able to stand even looking at Zyro's forlorn face anymore.  
Being in Kasama didn't help much either; it wasn't even that it bothered him all that much, but just the sheer fact that they all kept asking how he knew so much about - he knew a few things that might be able to help them out, shouldn't that be enough for them?  
He was able to forget when he really wanted too, even it meant only suppressing unwanted memories that may be blurred along the edges - the fact that Zyro, of all people, and even his friends, wanted to know how he knew this much about Kasama was what irritated him the most.  
Not to mention what had happened in the week that Gingka had been comatose, when he had just decided to 'help' them all by getting to stop crying every few minutes...  
But that was nothing like what happened all those years ago, in memories that he could barely even remember but stayed glued there to haunt the occasional nightmares in his usually dreamless nights. It didn't matter anymore, either way.

He had gotten past all of it, and he had left it all behind a long time ago to rot - whatever was left of his life before the DNA, he had no will to even care about it.  
He had stopped caring a long time ago, after he had lost his eye and had started to take on that more intimidating personality that made all the other kids stay away from him.  
But somehow, all of those useless emotions - compassion, empathy, kindness, love - were coming back.  
All because he actually sort of cared for the kid following him.  
Sighing through his nose, Kira shook his head, and prevented himself from almost walking into a lamp post due to his fair lack of depth perception...

* * *

"Sakyo and Takanosuke?" Alcorin questioned with furrowed eyebrows, looking over towards the black raven perched on his inverted finger beside him, and only having dead eyes stare back.  
The bird let out a deep croak from its throat, the sound of it hollow and lacking life unlike a normal, conscious bird would; several more hollowed squaks escaped the raven's beak, and Alcorin understood with the simple hold that he had on this poor creature's mind.  
"I wouldn't have suspected them, but who am I to judge?..." Alcorin asked no one, tilting his head back slightly while keeping his crimson eyes on the bird that he had imprisoned, "I suppose that simply means I have 2 parties to deal with... Not that those 2 should be too much trouble, but I won't take chances."  
Another hollowed croak protruded from the raven's throat, something that was simply music to the albino's ears from the sheer emptiness that inhabited it - or perhaps didn't, however that was supposed to technically work.  
"Kasama?..." The word came off his equally as white tongue as he heard all that was to report from his little messenger bird, and his tone made him sound thoroughly displeased, "Zyro and his friends are in Kasama... But of course.." A small chuckle came from the albino's lips, a smirk making its way onto his face as he tilted his head forward again.

"They don't know when to quit, especially not little Zyro..." Alcorin speculated, talking to no one but himself as he knew that the raven perched on his finger could never care what he had to say - nor did he doubt that the bird couldn't even understand a word that he said.  
It was just a puppet, and all it did was fly back and forth, looking with its dead eyes at the world that he himself honestly didn't care much about and simply observing for him, monitoring those little brats that refused to back down.  
But all in all, he didn't even really mind - it just meant that, in a way, they were eager to give him more to play with, more of them to break and crush under his hand just like the first time. It was so interesting, how gullible humans actually were.

"No matter how much I break and snip.." The albino went on, "He never seems to get the memo... He probably gets that from him, wouldn't you agree?"  
Having been previously staring out at the vast landscape before him, he turned his red orbs back towards the black bird sitting on his hand. He was given nothing but that blank stare and the slight cock of its head to the side; even so, a light chuckle escaped white lips as he went on.  
"It's just so pathetic..." Alcorin mused to himself, "He's so close to the breaking point, and yet he still desperately hangs on just to try to get to me... How cute; the poor baby.. None of them even have the slightest idea that Gingka's even alive, and when they do, well... _If_ they do, but all the same.. They won't take him away from me."  
A more bitter look crossed Alcorin's snow white features, his eyes narrowing as he turned his head to look out once more unto the landscape before him, which he was given an excellent view of from his vantage point, " _No one_ will take him away from me again..." Expression calming, crimson irises looked over towards the mindless bird perched on his hand, staring forward with dead eyes as it simply awaited its next orders on what it was supposed to do next.  
"Keep an eye on Zyro and his little friends in Kasama." The albino all but whispered to the raven, drawing his a bit closer to himself to bring it forward slightly, and it made no reaction, "I wouldn't want them to find what they're looking for so soon, if at all; after all, I still need to break them so more... I'll deal with Takanosuke and Sakyo later. Go."

With the final word, Alcorin threw the raven up into the air with just his one hand, the bird retaliating by flapping its wings instinctively to stay in the air and take flight before it flew away into the direction that it had come, unwillingly carrying out its orders on Alcorin's own demand.  
Lowering his arm back down to his side, Alcorin watched the messenger bird take off across the landscape, flying high above the tree tops and seeming to leave a shadow in its wake as the bird that represented death and ill omen.  
Red eyes narrowed slightly as they stared out across the landscape far below him from where he currently stood, the small breeze that did little to soothe the sweltering heat making his hair and bangs brush against the side of his face. He wouldn't have suspected Sakyo and Takanosuke to do anything until they did it; honestly, he hadn't even given the two of them much thought, as they hadn't even appeared to be that much of a threat to anything he had planned.  
He had watched them, of course, and seen it as they had helped Zyro and his friends at the last minute even though they had barely any idea of what was going on - the fact that even they decided to come look for him, was rather a surprise, even if he hated to admit it.

"Well then.." Alcorin said to himself, his red eyes glowing with the inheritance he had gotten from his long deceased father, "I'll just have to break them too."  
A small laugh escaped white lips at the thought, and he said no more as he turned and left from where he stood, not bothering to watch as the days slowly turned darker...

* * *

 _Gently did he set the glass down on the bedside table, the ice cubes in it gently floating around and clinking against each other and the glass as he resumed his seat beside his father's bed.  
The room was silent but for the man's breathing, which was slightly ragged and uneven as the illness kept running its coarse through his body until it finally struck home and left him nothing but a corpse, and the heart monitor, beside the bed to determine his state; needless to say, with this disease, it wasn't good.  
"Thanks..." The dying man said softly in gratitude, giving his son a weak smile from fulfilling his request.  
"No problem, dad." He said in response, his voice quiet yet sounding so loud in the silence that filled the house, something that he wasn't comfortable with, didn't recognize from the many years he had spent in this house from his childhood.  
Of course, that was a long time ago, before he had left when his father had supposedly died in that cave in at Mt. Hagane; despite that, he had only ever recognized one kind of aura in this house._

 _Life, laughter, happiness and joy._

 _He had used to chase Hyoma around the house when they were but toddlers, use to love it when it his dad picked him up and told him he was a little dork and that he loved him, loved it when he got to play with Hokuto when the dog wasn't hiding from him to prevent his toddler self from pulling on his tail._  
 _It wasn't like he had meant to do anything to him, he had only been a little kid._  
 _Now, there was nothing of that remaining but simple memories, the aura of he house smelling and feeling like death, sickness, disease._  
 _It was something that sent chills up his spine, making him shiver with the cold even though it was rather a recent temperature inside and outside the house. "How are you feeling?" He asked his father in a desperate attempt to break the silence that rang in his ears._  
 _"Guess.." The man responded playfully with a rasp in his voice, giving a few close-mouthed coughs before they stopped, "Not too much better, you can imagine." Biting his lip, he simply nodded in response, his eyebrows drawn together slightly while he adverted his eyes over to the side._

 _"Yeah.." He managed to get out, breathing in shaky breaths through his nose as he folded his hands together in his lap uncomfortably. He listened to the raspy breathing of his father for a moment, to the heart monitor that he was attached to, relishing in the fact that he was still alive, even if only just; he didn't his eyes back to him before he spoke._  
 _"Look, it's not your fault.." The dying man said from in front of him, drawing his golden-brown eyes back to the only real family he had, a gentle look on that pale face that he recognized so dearly from the early years, and even those after, "I was just one of the unlucky ones, that's all..."_  
 _He nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat and slowly breathing in to try and calm his fast-beating heart; it didn't work._

 _"You mean like mom?" He asked, taking one of his hands and resting it on the side of the bed while the other stayed in his lap. The man simply nodded with a sorrowful look in his eyes that were nearly identical to his own._

 _"Like your mother..." The older redhead determined with a hint of grief in his voice, "I think she would be proud if she could see you now.. I know I am... I just wish I could watch you grow up more, that's all." The younger of the two inhaled sharply at the words, trying not to let the tears spill from his eyes, even though he had already let that happen for the past few days of his father's condition._  
 _"Me too.." He said, more brokenly than he had wanted. He licked his lips, looking down towards his lap for a moment before looking back up towards the man he had known all of his life._  
 _"I'm sorry I wasn't around more often..." He apologized, "I would've been, i-if I knew that this-"_

 _"I don't blame you, Gingka..." The man said again, as firmly as he could with his weakened state that made it hard to even breathe; Isha had checked up on him a few times, and said that there was honestly no telling when he would pass, as it was always different with everyone._  
 _His mother included, who he heard had lasted 9 months while she was pregnant with him - he was never sure what to make of that, but it scared him._  
 _To think that his father could last for months in this suffering, never knowing when he was going die._  
 _"You couldn't possibly have known this was.. Going to happen..." The older redhead continued, groaning softly and shifting himself a bit as much as he could, "I'm just glad you came... So that I got to see you again."_  
 _A smile was on the elder's lips, an unvoiced laugh in his eyes that made himself smile a bit, a bitter sorrow hidden behind it._  
 _Looking down towards the blanket his father was under, he reached over with his hand that was already on the side of the bed and took his hand, savoring how the other redhead gripped it as firmly as he could for reassurance._  
 _He felt his father stroking the side of his hand with his thumb, something that he used to do whenever he had nightmares as a kid and woke up in the middle of the night, unable to go back to sleep._

 _His breath shook as he looked down, feeling the warm wetness sliding down his cheeks as he was unable to keep in the salty tears - somehow, he knew this was goodbye._

 _The sound of the heart monitor rang in his ears, slow, steady beats showing what Ryo was holding on by. A whimper escaped his own lips, holding his father's hand tight as the grief and sorrow and anguish over took him._  
 _"I love you dad..." He whimpered softly, the tears dripping onto his lap and dampening his jeans slightly in spots._  
 _It was only when he looked up into his father's face, eyes closed peacefully with a loose smile frozen there, did he hear the flat line of the heart monitor._  
 _The tears stopped falling as he stared with sorrow-filled eyes at the man who had once been his only family, the will to cry forgotten as there was left an empty hole inside of him where his father had once been._  
 _The only thing he could hear was the prolonged beep of the heart monitor, going on and on like a wail of anguish that he himself fought to keep in. For what seemed like forever, Gingka held Ryo's hand, even though he knew there was no earthly way he would ever feel it._

 _Then everything went black._

* * *

Gingka didn't open his eyes - not really.

He could never tell if he ever did from the darkness that surrounded him, allowing him to see nothing except for what was right in front of him - but there was never anything in front of him.  
He could see himself for the most part, and he could feel the invisible chains that kept him bound to the spot he knelt in, pinning down whatever remained of his wings in tattered feathers and missing downs.  
His breathing was heavy as he was suddenly torn away from the last memory he had of his father, something that he hadn't even been visualizing, something that he hadn't even been thinking about before he had seen it, experienced it all over again.  
And for a split moment, he had almost felt like everything was okay.

But it wasn't okay.

He was here, trapped in the darkness with nothing else but a creature that he never saw with his own two eyes, that tormented him and mocked him endlessly with words and actions that he wanted so badly to tear away from; but he never could.  
Because he was the one who was chained down, unable to move and barely able to speak from the fear and horror that always managed to course through his veins.  
He never saw it.  
If he ever saw anything, it was a simple blur of white and black in the corner of his eyes, and the hands that never seemed to stop touching him, setting every nerve in his body on fire from the intensity that pulsated from the sheer touch of its skin, whispering into his ear in a voice that he hated, speaking in mocking words and tearing off the feathers of his wings one by one, trying to dig down to the bone in his shoulder blades and rip them out.

 **"How adorable.."** Said the voice that he recognized, yet could never place, that made him freeze altogether and stop his breathing, as if to try and hide from the monsters only for it to be vain.  
There was the shuffling of something behind him, a sound that he was now all too familiar with as that.. Thing.. Came up behind him, its fingertips touching his back and sending waves of that intense pressure through his body even through his clothes.  
He shivered violently as its hands slowly snaked upwards to his shoulders, pressing its torso against his back as he leaned against him, as though for support.

 **"You remember it loud and clear, don't you, little Gingka?"** It spoke into his ear, making him shudder from the warm breath blowing against it, **"How your dear** ** _father_** **looked at you, how he lay there dying while you held his hand and sat beside him, thinking that the only thing he ever did was love you... He wouldn't have ever done anything to hurt you, right?"**  
The hand resting on his left shoulder slowly slid down his arm, feeling the fabric of his jacket and fingertips stopping just where he's folded it up to his elbows, **"You even held his hand as he died right next to you... Isn't that just sweet."**  
The intense pressure of its gentle touch amplified once white fingertips hit the skin of his forearms, its opposite hand sliding up from his shoulder to his neck and setting every one of his closest nerves on fire in its intensity.  
Gingka whimpered softly - pathetically -, wanting so badly to tear away from the thing that pressed itself against him from behind, to just stand up and away into the darkness that he knew would lead to nowhere else but right here.  
But with the chains that wrapped around his wrists, his ankles, even the invisible collar around his neck, he could do nothing but listen to it, feel it as it touched him endlessly with a sensation that almost felt welcoming, yet revolting all the same.

 **"But then you don't remember anything else, now do you?.."** An amused tone came to its voice, a small giggle on the edge of its unseen lips that may have been as white as its hands and fingers were, **"You held his hand, and watched him die, and then there wasn't anything else until you woke up... What would your** ** _friends_** **say if they ever found out the truth, hmm?.. What would they think of you?.."**  
Gingka's eyes widened, confusion wracking his brain and being the only other thing he felt aside from the intensity that pulsated through his skin, feeling skin as smooth as glass trail along his own and set set off every nerve that he had in pressure that was bordering on painful.  
Its left hand made its way down his forearm, seeming to trace the bones beneath his flesh as its fingers reached his wrist and stopped there, as if feeling the shackles around them and relishing in the delight of having him bound to the spot.  
Carefully, it snaked its fingers in between his, the palm of its hand on the top of his own and making its skin seem even whiter in contrast to the dark brown gloves that he wore.  
The hand closer to his neck trailed along his collar bone, making him swallow hard and whimper softly as he feared what it might do with the intensity that was born of its skin.  
A small laugh escaped its mouth from just behind him, breathing and whispering in his ear with a voice that he still couldn't place, but felt and sounded like a nightmare.

 **"You have no idea what you did, now do you, dear Gingka?.."** It spoke into his ear, its lips just brushing against the shell of it and making a shiver run down his spine, **"You never realized what really happened, after you woke up in that grove and don't even remember how... How cute.. You don't even know what happened to your dearest father, now do you?"**  
The hand on his collarbone shifted upwards to his neck, running its fingers over where his Adam's apple was and making him whimper from the fear and intensity that pulsated through him.  
 **"You always knew what he did, because it was always** ** _right there_** **.. But you never did realize what** ** _you_** **did, dear Gingka.."**

"Stop it.." The onslaught of touching stopped for a moment, almost as if in shock that words had actually come from beyond his lips after so long.

"Just stop it!..." Gingka repeated, whimpering pathetically as he felt the intensity of its touch suddenly stop, both hands only remaining in 2 places and causing it to become almost unbearable from the pressure held in one spot.

 **"Stop?.."** It repeated, its voice sounding amused that he had actually spoken, and lifted the hand on his jawline up towards his mouth, **"You always were so adorable, you know that?... I could never see anything of the outside while you kept me here, and now you can't see it either... But I could always see you.."**  
Its fingers, as white as new winter, brushed over his lips, as if feeling them, before two of them pressed against them with force that he hadn't expected.  
Gingka kept his mouth closed, tears welling in his eyes from the pain of the pressure that ran through this.. Thing's.. Skin and tormented him, speaking into his ear with mocking words that made him want to do nothing scream.  
 **"You were never anything but a simple mockery.."** It said to him, whispering against the shell of his ear that its mouth felt uncomfortably close to, **"And I was always here... Waiting for the exact moment when you would open up, and you would let me out.. And you did..** ** _Twice_** **."**

With abrupt force, white fingers forced their way into his mouth, making him choke softly before freezing in place; the intensity of its touch ran down his tongue, making him sob as the tears began running down his face.  
A laugh sounded from just behind him, echoing in his ears as it took its fingers out of his mouth. It took its other hand out from his own, its fingers drifting away from and off of him, hearing the sound of it leaving which always managed to calm him down. But this time, it didn't - because he knew it would always come back.  
Gingka breathed heavily, sobs mixing in with it as his throat constricted to create a symphony of broken screams as tears ran down his face, wanting nothing more than for it all just to stop.  
All he ever wanted, from the first he had met that damned thing, was it for it all to stop.  
And there was no sound of ticking to keep him sane.

 _Zyro... Please.. Get me out of here.._


	17. Chapter 16 - Further Going

Chapter 16 - Further Going

* * *

"Well, that was useless." Kira said unhelpfully as he and Zyro rounded the corner, heading away from the Kasama Inari Shrine that had proved not to be much help.  
Kira had let Zyro do a lot of the talking, with asking about any shrines or temples devoted to Nemesis and what-not, which the priest there had given them strange looks before simply answering that there was nothing that he knew of.  
"Yeah, I guess.." Zyro replied, glancing over his shoulder for a moment before looking ahead again, his eyes glancing over towards the pastel-haired blader beside him, "Where to next?"

"Well, there's another shrine over to the west side of town.." Kira advised, though it almost seemed more to himself rather than to Zyro, "I suppose we could look at that one, but I doubt they'd have anything if this one didn't." Zyro raised an eyebrow slightly.  
"How many shrines does this place have, exactly?" He asked. It was curiosity, not sarcasm, and even Kira - who didn't really take the time to get to know him - knew that Zyro wasn't one for sarcasm.  
"There's a few." The Bahamoote Blader answered with a small sigh trailing the words, "But I rather doubt they'd have anything if that one didn't." Zyro shrugged his shoulders, a small smile on his face that showed that he was at least _trying_ to be a bit more positive.

"Well, it's worth a shot, isn't it?" He asked, which simply earned a small sigh from the Bahamoote Blader beside him.  
"I suppose, if you say so." The pastel-haired boy replied in a bored tone and - taking the lead once more - began to lead the other boy in the direction to where he had said the other shrine was. Zyro simply followed the slightly older blader, being sure to stay relatively beside him while the other still lead the way.  
But even as he followed, trying to keep his mind on the objective at hand, Zyro couldn't help but - once again - think about how Kira knew so much about Kasama. Knowing about a few shrines around the small city was one thing, but he also knew the exact location of a hotel, which he was pretty sure didn't just come from random browsing of the internet.  
He already suspected the answer, which hadn't exactly taken him too long to figure out once he had considered the possibilities, and it was the only thing that really made sense.  
It took several moments of silence between the two of them, listening to nothing more than the cars passing by and the sound of bickering pedestrians passing to and fro, before Zyro finally decided to speak.

"Hey, Kira." Zyro began, the question lingering on his lips that he was just a second away from asking. Maybe it was a bad idea, but curiosity began to win over above all things.

"What?" Kira asked, irritation present in his voice. He didn't look at Zyro as they both kept walking, but the ginger-ravenette didn't say anything about that - after all, it was Kira he was talking to.

"Did you used to live here?" Zyro asked, and all at once, Kira stopped walking. Zyro stopped as well, and after only a couple moments did Kira respond.  
"What makes you think that?" The pastel-haired blader asked, his voice sounding unusually stiff and rigid.  
Despite that, Zyro answered anyway.  
"Because you obviously know a lot about this place." He said, "And I'm pretty sure that all of that didn't just come from research."

"Why does this matter so much to you, Zyro?" Kira asked, turning around with a cold look in his one eye and slightly sour expression on his face, "I know a bit about the place, alright? Why are you so concerned about it?"

"I'm just.. Curious..." Zyro muttered with a shrug, though kept his eyes locked with Kira's one, "You don't seem to want to talk about it, so I thought I'd try and ask." Kira simply scowled at him.  
"Well, don't ask." He said firmly, his one eye narrowed slightly, "It's not important."

"It seems important to you." Zyro retorted calmly.  
Kira fell silent at those words.  
He averted his one eye away from the Fire Blader, barely able to look at him from the amount of frustration building up inside from Zyro's blatant stubbornness on the subject. He honestly didn't understand Zyro's whole thing with always being there for his friends, for always being concerned about them.

He was hardly his friend at all.

But even so, Zyro looked at him silently, watching him with forlorn eyes that they all knew didn't suit him - even though Kira himself would have previously begged to differ -, waiting to see whether or not Kira would answer or not.  
Kira drew his one brow inward, a troubled look on his face as the question swam around in his head, letting it all sink in about what exactly Zyro was asking him - he didn't need this sentimental crap.  
He never had, and he had never wanted it in the first place.  
Forget the memories, burn them, bury them, do whatever you had to do with them. But no matter what he did, they would always come back to him once in awhile.  
Loathing himself entirely, Kira sighed deeply through his nose which made a soft growling sound in his throat before he finally spoke; he didn't bring himself to look Zyro in the eye, though.

"I grew up here, alright?" It came out grated, rigid and stiff, and a hint of reluctance behind his voice at saying anything at all.  
"Is that what you wanted to hear, Zyro?" The pastel-haired blader asked, a slightly defeated tone to his voice that he hated hearing from himself.  
"I guess.." Zyro said, looking down towards his feet for a moment before looking back up.

"Good." Kira said almost immediately, "Now if you don't have anymore life questions, come on." Without being given the time to answer, Kira simply grabbed Zyro's wrist and pulled him forward as he started walking again, letting go of him after a moment or two once he knew that he was following along beside him.  
Zyro was actually surprised by the action, but didn't comment on it since he knew Kira was just doing whatever he thought was necessary; including getting him to follow him again after stubborn talk about knowledge.  
Swallowing the lump in his throat at the sudden tenseness between them, the Fire Blader ultimately decided to speak again.  
"How much _do_ you know about Kasama, exactly?" The ginger-ravenette questioned, mentally preparing himself for the same response he had gotten the first time.

Instead, Kira answered stiffly with, "I know enough." and refused to look at him.  
"I don't know anything about any of those damned temples we're looking for, if that's what you're asking." The pastel-haired blader continued, "I know a lot about the place, but I'm not a historian on it. I only ever bothered to know enough to get myself through the day when I was a kid."  
Zyro knit his eyebrows together at that statement, finding it almost troubling. He didn't entirely know what Kira meant by that, so it wasn't his place to be setting labels - it probably wasn't even be his place to question Kira about his origins at all.  
But he did consider Kira one of his friends - even if the other blader could say otherwise due to their previous quarrels -, and he was concerned about him, most of all.

"Is that why you think the other shrine won't know anything?" The Fire Blader asked, trying to say at least somewhat on topic even while all the little theories about Kira himself floated around in his head.  
"Oh, who knows?.." Kira said irritably with a roll of the eye, "I barely ever walked past these things, let alone actually go the them. I just know that usually one shrine knows something, the other ones do to, or something like that. I haven't even been here for 3 years, so hell if I remember." Kira mentally cringed at his own words.  
Why was he suddenly telling snippets of his past to the kid that he had wanted nothing more than to cause pain to not a month or so ago?  
All memories ever were was a weakness, which was why he had burnt most of them and left behind this wretched town that he always hated anyways.  
Whether Zyro actually cared or not, he didn't have the slightest clue, but there was no reason that he should be concerned about him; so why was he vaguely talking to him about a childhood that he had less than enjoyed?

"Is that when you joined the DNA?" Zyro asked.  
"Obviously." Kira responded sarcastically, refusing to look at the slightly younger boy. After a few moments, Kira sighed and spoke once more in irritation.

"I suppose you want to know _why_ I did, now?" He asked, glancing over towards the Fire Blader who seemed a bit taken aback.  
"I never said that.." Zyro responded in defense, his eyebrows knitted together slightly as he looked away from the Bahamoote Blader.  
"You didn't have too." Kira said, looking forward once again and glancing around with his one eye to make sure that they were going in the right direction, "It's practically written on your face." Sky blue eyes looked back towards the other blader that still refused to look at him, unknowing of what he was supposed to say to Kira from his stubbornness to talk.  
"I was just wondering.." The Fire Blader said lamely, shrugging his shoulders softly as they both turned the corner on the sidewalk, "Why did you join them, exactly?"  
Sighing through his nose, Kira shook his head slightly.  
Zyro probably wasn't going to drop the subject until they got to that shrine, which now seemed miles away even though it was just a few streets over by now. Of course, he would probably stop if Kira told him to drop it, as he told him to drop the sulking attitude that he couldn't seem to help for too long.  
He should just stop talking about it altogether, tell Zyro that he should forget about it because he wasn't going to answer him, that this wouldn't accomplish anything if they actually did want to find the psychopath they were chasing after.  
After all, this place really wasn't anything more to him than just a place where they could possibly find some answers to something relating to the sadistic bastard they seemed to hate so much.

"You have to answer, Kira, I-" Zyro began, but Kira almost immediately cut in with words that he had not planned to come out of his mouth.

"Because I had nowhere else to be." The pastel-haired blader answered, stopping in his tracks once more after the outburst of an answer that he hadn't meant to give the other boy.  
From the silence that passed for no more than a moment, Zyro was surprised as well that Kira had answered at all.  
Growling softly in his throat, Kira inwardly cursed at himself for even unconsciously considering to answer, but he knew there was no going back and making sure that he didn't.

Why had even answered in the first place?...

It wasn't like Zyro had the right to know, and he would never have let himself feel obligated to do so; yes, he owed Zyro for saving his life, but that didn't mean spilling his guts about his entire life.  
It was nothing more than a simple mistake... Or maybe it was the small soft spot that he denied he had for the other blader.  
"Kira?" Zyro spoke up, concern lacing his voice as he watched the pastel-haired boy, who was simply staring down towards the ground, unblinking.

"There wasn't anything for me around here." Kira continued, his voice grating and loathing, "Even if there was, the DNA was more suited for me than anything. They didn't give a damn if I enjoyed watching people suffer for no reason, they just wanted me to destroy you all."  
His one eye turned over towards Zyro, who simply stood there frozen with nothing to say. "I actually thought breaking you was a lot of fun, Kurogane." The twitch of a smirk played on the edges of Kira's purple lips as he spoke, "Doji and the Garcias didn't care what I did with you, as long as I worked for them, and I did that. They even installed this thing on me."  
Kira raised one slender hand up to the eye patch covered almost half of his faith, tapping on it softly with one finger and listening to the gentle ring of his red-gloved fingertip on metal.  
"Hmph.." Kira hummed briefly, dropping his hand away from his eye patch and settling it on his hip, "That's all. I didn't have any reason to stay here, so I joined the DNA. Simple as that."

"Wouldn't anyone have come looking for you?" Zyro asked, internally trying to make sense of how that whole scenario with Kira leaving his hometown would've worked when he sounded like he was only around 13 or so.  
Kira simply chuckled at the idea.  
"I doubt any of them would've cared if I left or not.." He said with stifling amusement, "I wasn't exactly the favorite as you can imagine.."

"But they were your family, weren't they?" Zyro asked, his brows knitted together and watching as Kira turned mostly towards him with a more sour expression on his face.  
"They were never my family, Zyro." The pastel-haired blader said before he could think not too, "There was just a lot of us... In the houses.."

All of once, Kira mentally slapped himself for letting that part slip, and immediately averted his one eye away from the other blader.  
 _"Dammit.."_ He thought to himself, cursing over and over again inside his head from how vulnerable he had just made himself to Zyro.  
For a few moments, neither of them said anything, and it automatically seemed like everything around them had disappeared, in a world where there was no sound, and no one else except for them and their voices.  
"You're a foster kid..." Zyro finally said, a sense of realization in his tone of voice. Kira sighed heavily, a bitter look on his face that was more for himself than anyone else. There was a tightening in his chest, an almost nauseating feeling in the pit of his stomach as he forced himself to speak.

"Yes.." He answered stiffly, "I am.. That's what happens when..."

No.

 **Ba-thump**

 _Socked feet tapping against the wooden bar of the chair..._

No.

 **Ba-thump**

 _"Mommy?..." The door cracked open, creaking on its hinges as he opened it..._

Forget about it... Forget about it..

 **Ba-thump**

 _Water all over the floor, overflowing from the bathtub and stained with red.._

It doesn't matter..

 **Ba-thump**

 _His mother, pale as snow and leaning against the arch of the bathtub, long cuts on her wrists.. Red everywhere.._

It never mattered...

 **Ba-thump**

 _"Where's my mommy?.." There was no answer.._

You never mattered..

 **Ba-thump**

With a relatively stoic face did Kira swiftly turn and slam his fist directly into the lamp post that was beside him, a sharp sting and ache beginning at his knuckles and spreading halfway up his arm to his elbow, a muffled yell of frustration bitten back on his lips.  
He could practically hear Zyro jump in surprise at this action, feeling those forlorn eyes stare at him from behind, but he couldn't bring himself to care.  
The only thing he focused on was the pain that came swiftly, sharply, making half of the nerves in his arm react and burn for a short amount of time before it began to dull.  
Even as the pained sensation began to fade, Kira hung on to every fiber of it as if were the only lifeline he had.  
Breathing hard, he let his hand drop back down to his side, his knuckles and fingers now aching when he moved them, his shoulders stiff his head hung, looking down towards the ground in a defeated way.  
Zyro simply stood there, shocked at Kira's course of action at slamming his fist into a metal pole, which would likely leave a bruise or two underneath his glove.  
He had no idea what Kira had been about to say before he had fallen silent and done that, but he could tell that it might be a memory that he could've bare to bring to light. So he stood there helplessly, glancing around for a moment and seeing the few stares that Kira had gained before the strangers continued on with their lives like nothing had happened.

"Kira?..." Zyro spoke in concern, which drew Kira's attention and made him turn back towards the Fire Blader.  
He looked at him with bitterness, eye narrowed and shoulders gently rising and falling with his breathing. Neither of them said anything.  
Zyro looked down slightly, suddenly finding himself incapable of meeting Kira's eye as the guilt shot at him again.  
"Kira, I..." Zyro began, but his voice died on his lips as he tried to speak, "I.. I'm sorry... I-I didn't mean to-"

" _Don't_ apologize, Zyro." Kira said firmly, causing the other blader to look up at him once more to see that his expression had quickly changed to indifference, "It doesn't matter anymore. Now come on."  
With no further words, Kira simply turned and started making his way down the sidewalk to their objective that they had been heading too before the heavy conversation had began.  
Zyro, slightly taken aback by Kira's swift movement to brush it off, stood there a moment in shocked silence. He let out a shallow breath, an untold emotion behind it before he stood his head and hurried his way up the sidewalk to catch up with Kira...

* * *

Tithi had learned a lot of things from Dynamis in his time at the Mist Mountain Shrine, but funerals for deceased Guardians were not one of them.  
Dynamis had told him that one guardian protected the mountain at a time, and when one Guardian's time had come to an end, another would be born soon after, that when a guardian of the shrine died their souls would be granted peace in the afterlife while another took their place to guard it until their dying days.  
But he had never told him what happened with the guardians' bodies after they died, whether or not they were given funerals or if they were simply left to rot and decay until they were left as nothing but the dust and rock that made up the temple itself.  
He had wished to honor Dyanmis's ancestry somehow, but not knowing what he was supposed to do with Dynamis's rotting corpse ( _flies, maggots, rot, flesh..._ ) made it rather difficult.

Of course, he had first had to settle himself after unwittingly desecrating the temple by vomiting on the floor and after seeing Dynamis's body, which was a sight that he had never expected to see when he entered the shrine again.  
He had consulted with himself on what exactly he was supposed to do in the great hall, sitting on the stairs and trying to make every bit of sense as he could. But it didn't make sense. Dynamis never usually left the Mist Mountain Shrine, and seeing as how he had lived there for years upon years on very little but still managing to keep himself healthy, it was a wonder of how exactly he had died in the first place.  
His neck had been twisted in a way that definitely wasn't natural in any name of the word, unless it was a cause of the rigomortis that had stiffened his body and caused his limbs to jut out slightly at horrifying angles, but he highly doubted that.  
At 17, Tithi definitely wasn't stupid, and could recognize a snapped neck when he saw one. He also knew that that didn't just happen for no reason.  
So as he stood there before the flaming pyre he had built a small ways away from the Mist Mountain Shrine, he pondered all of it, watching absently with sorrow and anguish as Dynamis's previously rotting body burned.  
Dynamis had been his friend for 7 years, when they had all met as Legendary Bladers back in the Nemesis Crisis, and to say the least, it hurt.  
Tithi had lost his mother when he was as young as 9, and he had resorted to living in the ruins by that town for the next year before he had met Yu and Kyoya, but losing Dynamis was on a whole different level than his mother had been at.  
Losing him seemed to hurt more, to cause the tightening in his chest and rock in his stomach that made him feel like he was going to be sick again.  
Not knowing exactly how he died was what troubled him the most, however. Of course, there was the blatant show of a broken or snapped neck, which was likely the cause of it, but it was how it happened that didn't make any sense.

But even through the tears, the smell, and the overwhelming thought of _he's dead_... Tithi was able to see the slightly worn, chalk words written on the floor by Dynamis's body that gave him at least some sort of reassurance.  
He didn't know where they came from, who had written them, or even if it was actually the truth, but merely the thought that the Guardian didn't suffer to ease some of the sorrow and grief.  
Narrowing his eyes slightly, an anguished look on his face, Tithi looked up from the ground with his light blue orbs and stared into the burning flames, the sound of sparks ringing in his ears.  
The smoke from the fire rose high into the air, the smell of burning flesh filling his nose but somehow being unable to phase him, unlike the way he had reacted when he first seen the rotting corpse.  
The purplette let out a shaky breath, shaking his head slightly as he pulled his lower lip into his mouth and sucked on it before letting it go.

"Why did it have to be you, Dynamis?.." Tithi asked the burning corpse that he knew was beyond answering him, "Why the hell did it have to be you?!"  
The tears started falling against his will, the tear tracks glimmering in the sunlight against his dark skin, overlapping the ones from earlier that were now barely visible on his face.  
Bringing a hand up to his face, he wiped the tears away on the back of it.  
Once more, he looked up towards the flaming carcass that couldn't even be seen upon the pyre anymore, entirely consumed by the flames that would - maybe - release Dynamis's soul from its trapped agony in a broken body.  
Tithi had no idea how funerals for the dead Guardians of Mist Mountain went, or even if there were any funerals given, but this was the least he could do for the man. He deserved it, after all that he had done.  
Once more, the boy shook his head, sighing through his nose and forcing the tears down that gathered in his eyes again and refused to leave him alone.

"I'll look after it the best I can..." Tithi said hopelessly, feeling the heat of the flames against his skin that dried the damp tracks from his eyes, "I hope all you taught me will do me some sort of good... Goodbye, Dynamis.. Sorry I wasn't around more before this.."  
Unable to look at the fire again, the purplette simply turned and walked away, heading through the small, wide rock path that would lead him back to the shrine again.  
The sound of the flames roared, the smell of smoke filling the air as the fire crackled and sparked endlessly.  
As he walked, Tithi held onto that sound; it was the last he had of Dynamis as his soul, hopefully, passed on into Nirvana to be with the rest of his ancestors...

* * *

For most of his work hours that day, Tsubasa had been doing nothing but overlooking all that he had received from the personnel he had sent to Tokyo, Niigata, Sendai, Chiba, and Sapporo, filing out most of them as they proved not to be of any help - to tell the truth, none of them so far seemed to be.  
He was still waiting for a few more files from both Niigata and Sapporo, but he had gone over at least half of the ones he did have while he was waiting patiently for them.  
He read each file carefully for hours, and had even stayed overnight the previous day so that he could skim through at least a quarter of them if possible.  
Needless to say, it was getting a bit on his nerves, but after years of learning patience and tranquility through the wings of his Eagle, he was able to take a few deep breaths every now and then and remind himself that there was no reason to get frustrated, since there was always going to be pain with gain.

Tapping his finger on his desk, the silverette's golden eyes scanned over the screen in front of him as they had for several hours that day, a Latte that he requested earlier sitting by his side for refreshment.  
"Hmmm.." The Director hummed softly to himself as he read the last there was of the file in front of him, before deciding that it too was one of no use, and slid his finger across the screen to the next one after filing the other one in the continuously growing list of things that just didn't prove to be helpful.  
Blinking a few times, Tsubasa reached over and took another sip from the cup beside him, which was now half full over the span of the hour since it had been brought to him. Before he set it down again, the phone at the corner of his desk burst out with its loud ringing, drawing his attention away from the screen in front of him as he acknowledged it.  
Setting the cup down, the silverette reached over and picked up the phone off the receiver, putting it up to his ear as he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Director." Greeted the all too familiar voice of Ayano, who he knew was currently filling in Tamako's place for receiving calls and making outward calls, "Sorry if I'm disturbing anything, but Shura and Yuki are going to sending you some more files from Sapporo shortly." Sighing through his nose, Tsubasa let a soft smile cross his lips, even though there was no one to see it.  
"Thanks." He said in gratitude, "I'll look at them shortly. If you can, try and contact Tanaka and Akari at Niigata to see how their progress is going."

"Sure thing, Director." Ayano responded obediently. Reassured that she would do the best she could, Tsubasa nodded to himself and put the phone back onto the receiver.  
Almost immediately after did the Director stand up, feeling the ache in his limbs after being seated at his desk for so long, and walked over to the one wall that was nothing but windows.  
The sun beat down endlessly upon the city, barely a single cloud in the sky to protect them from its unbearable rays, reflecting off glass windows like a spotlight.  
It showed down into what all made up Metal Bey City, with its colors and people, its life and its excitement for the battle.  
To anyone else, it would seem like a very beautiful place, if you ignored the towering skyscrapers that blocked quite a few of the views, but to Tsubasa, everything seemed grey.

He could see the blue of the sky, the green of the grass, the red and yellow and green and black of passing cars in the streets below, but to his own golden eyes they were all muted by grey. He knew he probably wasn't the only one who now saw the world this way.  
He had looked upon the faces of Zyro, Madoka, Maru, and everyone else that had survived the battle, and he saw the changes.

The way Zyro was so... Broken down, all of the pressure seeming to chew away at him and leave him as a kid that they were almost stranger to.

The way Madoka's eyes didn't light up as beautifully as they used to with their turquoise shine, seeming almost hollowed out in their light whenever there was the talk of Beybattles and the when the days passed by.

The way Maru's usual cheerful and upbeat personality was muted by the weights put on her, especially with Dynamis's death.

Tsubasa had been through a lot in his days with Gingka's generation of Beyblade, and he had seen and experienced things that he would never forget, but somehow, all of this seemed just so different.  
Maybe it was the undeniable fact that Gingka was actually dead and they had unwittingly gone with Alcorin's plans, or maybe it was something else entirely that Alcorin had done in the short week that Gingka had actually been comatose, but all of it seemed to have a greater impact on all of them than anything ever had.  
Now that he thought about Zyro and the others, he had to wonder how exactly they were doing.  
He had contacted them the day before to see how their progress was, and they had already been on the outskirts of Mito, so there wasn't really any telling where they could be now.  
They might still be in Mito, or they might have left it by now to search for any answers elsewhere - it would probably be best to check and see how they were turning out.  
Turning back to walk towards his desk, Tsubasa stopped in the very same moment as there was echo in the back of his skull.

 _"Tsubasa..."_

A small gasp escaped caramel-colored lips, golden eyes widening at the voice that he did recognize as anyone he was familiar with.  
If it had actually existed, and he wasn't finally snapping again like he had all those years ago with the Dark Power, he could barely hear it at all. It had sounded weak, almost desperate, soft, and almost yearning.  
Slowly, golden eyes glanced about, looking from one corner of his office to the next, but found that he was only one there.  
Surely it couldn't be another of Alcorin's tricks again like before, when he revealed himself to them on the screen behind his desk and told them all the vague truth.  
Then again, Alcorin's voice, when they had found where he was, had echoed in the back of their skulls just like this one did now.  
But if he truly had heard anything, this voice was not Alcorin's.

 _"Tsubasa..."_

And there it was again.  
More confident now that he wasn't losing it like he had with his dark side 8 years ago, the silverette felt like he had heard this voice from somewhere.  
In the same type of scenario, in the back of his head... But instead of questioning that, the Director kept his cool and simply glanced around the room with his eyes again. "Hello?" He called out warily, and was immediately met with an answer.

 _"Tsubasa... Please.."_

It struggled somehow, he could tell. Its voice sounded strained, and he wondered why.

 _"..Please... Tell them..."_

'Tell them'? Tell who? Tell them what?

"What do you mean?" Tsubasa asked the air in front of him, being sure to be cautious in case anything bad out of this.  
Either way, he probably very weird to anyone else if they could see him, talking to nobody and glancing around the room. But perhaps he wasn't talking to nobody.  
Maybe not exactly...

 _"Tell them... That... Tell them..."_

The more it spoke to him, the harder it became to hear. It echoed in the back of his head in a shapeless form, and the more it struggled to speak, the more it seemed to start to fade, to become more desperate to tell him... Something.  
There was a ringing in Tsubasa's ears that had been faint before, but now seemed to intensify as the voice tried harder and harder to speak to him.

 _"..Tell them... He's..."_

Then all at once, it stopped.

The body less voice stopped speaking, the unnaturally loud ringing in his ears ceasing to be heard, and Tsubasa was left once more in the uncomfortable silence of his office...

* * *

After what had been at least a 5 hour sleep, Takanosuke woke up once more to the feeling of a fresh cloth being put on his forehead by Sakyo.  
The ice pack against his jugular vein had been removed, likely because the elder of the two didn't see it as too necessary anymore.  
The blonde had blinked his eyes awake, and even through the drowsy haze leftover from his rest, he didn't feel the nausea in his stomach anymore, and the headache that had previously pounded against his skull was now gone as well, despite the uncomfortable aftermath of a soft pressure on the inside of his temples.  
Groaning softly as he moved slowly, his body feeling heavy after resting for so long, Takanosuke looked over to his side to see Sakyo standing beside the bed he lay in, a rather soft look on his face (as soft as his could get) as he made sure he had placed the new cloth on Takanosuke's still somewhat warm forehead.  
The Griffin Blader, though he didn't find himself voicing it, was grateful.

"You're awake.." Sakyo acknowledged aloud, his voice still with its rough edge but a bit softer sounding than it normally was.  
"Yeah..." Takanosuke responded a bit tiredly, a smile managing to make its way onto his face, "Thanks for taking care of me, Sakyo." A soft hum came in response.  
"Don't worry about it." The redhead said kindly, which Takanosuke knew was his way of saying 'you're welcome'.  
"How long was I asleep?" The Griffin Blader asked, managing to push himself up a bit into a sitting position, propping the pillow behind him up a bit so he wasn't leaning awkwardly against the headboard.

"5 hours." Sakyo responded bluntly, "It's 6:00 in the afternoon.. How are you feeling?" Keeping the wet cloth pressed against his forehead, Takanosuke looked over at Sakyo with his cerulean eyes, a smile on his face.  
"Better, now." He said with a hint of a relieved sigh, "Thanks again Sakyo." Sakyo said nothing in response, and simply turned to sit down on the other bed in the hotel room, crossing one leg over the other and crossing his arms over his chest as well.

"What do you remember?" The Dragoon Blader asked, watching from the corner of his eye as Takanosuke reached over and took a few sips of the water on the table before setting it down.  
"Umm.." The blonde began in thought, seemingly trying to recall at that there was before he had blacked out earlier that day.

But he remembered.

He remembered everything from the start of his headache to the moment he fell.

He remembered the things that he had seen when he had looked at Sakyo, which he knew had some sort of meaning but couldn't pinpoint what it was.

He remembered, but he wasn't going to tell Sakyo all of it - Seer or not, it would make him sound a bit crazy.  
"I just kind of..." Takanosuke began, trying to summon up the right words, "I remember talking to you and stuff, and then I just... Had a headache, a really bad one, and then I felt dizzy.. And I kind of... Passed out, I think."  
Of course he had passed out.  
For whatever reason, he definitely had, whether it be because of whatever he had seen or it actually had been heatstroke, he wasn't sure of.  
Sakyo looked at him for a moment with his crimson eyes, staring at him intently with his normal cold expression put back on his face.  
Though it was comforting to see Sakyo's features soften up a bit while he had been taking care of him, the way he usually looked with that hard look seemed to suit him a lot better - even despite the concerned gleam in his crimson irises.

"I see.." The Dragoon Blader said simply, looking away from the blonde and instead staring at the wall opposite him, "I don't know what else it would be other than heat stroke.. You're lucky, to say the least."

"Yeah, I guess so..." Takanosuke said thoughtfully, "I'm okay now though, Sakyo." The Griffin Blader dabbed the wet cloth on his forehead, and then dabbing at his neck and the upper part of his chest, half-surprised to suddenly realize that he wasn't wearing the hoodie he usually had on.  
His cerulean eyes quickly picked up that it was hanging over a chair at the desk in the room, while he was left in his dark blue-purple tank top.  
"If you say so." Sakyo said gruffly in response.

He had already checked Takanosuke's forehead before the blonde had woken up, and his fever had dissipated in the few hours that he had had of rest.  
If it had indeed been heat stroke that had caused the boy to collapse, then it had gone away in record time.  
It should have lasted for a couple days at the least, should have left the blonde feeling sick and uncomfortable for hours on end, but Sakyo wasn't going to complain. He knew that Takanosuke definitely wasn't going to either.  
"If you think you're okay to move around, then good." Sakyo said, glancing towards the Griffin Blader with his crimson eyes for a moment, "There's not much here, I already looked."  
Takanosuke was surprised by that. He hadn't expected Sakyo to go look around the small portion of town that was Ibaraki, since taking care of him had seemed to be his only priority when he was awake 5 hours ago - but it was a good thing to know whether or not there was anything in this small town.  
"So when are we going?" Takanosuke asked, dabbing his already damp forehead with the cloth in his hand.  
"Tonight, if you're okay to do that." Sakyo replied gruffly, his voice as hard as his face always was, "I'd rather not do it by day, after what happened earlier with you."

"Okay.." The blonde said in agreement, thinking that traveling by night - when it might be maybe just a little bit cooler - was probably the best course of action.  
Either way, they were sticking to the road, so there wasn't much of a chance that they were going to get lost. With just a nod in response, Sakyo stood from the edge of the other bed he was sitting on and made his way over to the small bathroom the room contained, leaving Takanosuke alone for just a minute or so once more.  
Takanosuke dabbed his shoulders and chest with the cold cloth in his hand, sighing softly as he let his head fall back gently against the headboard with the pillow underneath him.  
Taking another sip of water, which did enough to lubricate his mouth a bit, the blonde couldn't help but let his mind wander.  
His grandmother had taught him a few things about different signs and omens when he was a kid, but he had never really cared enough to pay too much attention.  
He had mostly been interested in all of the visions that she had, finding them intriguing with the vague messages and their meanings, but the omens he had never bothered to look into.  
He knew whatever he saw meant something, and he knew that it meant something when he had looked at Sakyo and immediately saw those things - maybe it was what caused the small sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.


	18. Chapter 17 - Missing Leads

Chapter 17 - Missing Leads

* * *

It wasn't exactly a secret among the public that the Tokyo WBBA wasn't as connected with the other WBBA Organization Headquarters' as the others were with each other.  
Yes, they kept in contact with the other Directors, and did organize and discuss meetings and business situations between each other, but that was about it. The Tokyo WBBA, compared to all the others, was more isolated.  
While many people did find that strange, considering that the Tokyo WBBA and Director Hideyoshi himself ran the remaining government of Japan, nobody ever really questioned it.  
After all, it was each to their own, and whatever the WBBA Directors did the others usually respected.  
All they knew was that Director Hideyoshi was true to his work, and that he made sure to do his part upon the building of the Beyblade Generation with the city's share of small tournaments and Bey parks for the young bladers.

It was the knowledge of these looks on the organization that Hideyoshi pondered at that moment, sitting in his office while drinking his lukewarm coffee brought to him by one of his assistants.  
It was almost laughable to him, how well the public and young Bladers thought of the WBBA, especially that ran by Director Tsubasa Otori up in Metal Bey City. Director Otori, and the several other Directors before him such as Ryo Hagane, had clearly been honest and to their work upon building the Beyblade Generation, but when it came to himself, he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Yes, he was definitely true to his work, and devoted to it as many of the personnel in the building was; just not in the way that everybody else thought.  
Lifting the mug to his cold lips, the Director of the Tokyo WBBA sipped at the strong, dark liquid in satisfaction.  
Either way, it was best to let everyone see it as they did and let it pass on by - after all, he wouldn't want to ruin his reputation so drastically.  
Which also came with the vague complication of...

"Director." The firm voice of Naomi rang in his ears, grabbing the man's attention and making him look up towards the automatic sliding doors of his office.  
There, indeed, stood Naomi, as strict and well put as ever.  
"Ah, Naomi." Hideyoshi greeted, setting down his mug of coffee onto the hard wood of his desk, "I suggest you have news for me?"

"I do, Director." Naomi responded, her face tight and very well expressionless, "And it's not good." Hideyoshi raised a graying eyebrow at this.  
"And why would that be?" The Director questioned, folding his hands together in front of him. Naomi, now carrying an Ipad with her, flicked her finger across the screen several times before she came to what she was looking for.  
"We discovered this morning that one of our files in the system his missing." The dark brunette said firmly, turning her Ipad upside down and handing it right-side up to the Director, "We have reason to believe its been deleted, since we can't find any trace of it."

Blankly, Hideyoshi gazed at the screen with narrowed blue eyes, observing the contents of if and the confirmation that they were unable to find it at all.  
"Hmmm..." The Director hummed softly, skimming over it a couple times with his eyes, "Interesting that _that_ one would be missing, don't you think?"  
Naomi didn't answer, and accepted her Ipad from the man as he handed it back. "What will you have us do, Director?" The brunette questioned, holding her Ipad to her chest once more.  
"Nothing too drastic." The Director answered simply, "See if you can trace the deletion back to the device it was last brought up too... Once you've done that, report back to me on the results."

"Of course." Naomi said in response.  
"You may go." Hideyoshi said with a wave of the hand, dismissing her from his office. Naomi left without another word, carrying her Ipad close to her and ready to give orders to some of the personnel that often specialized in this type of thing.  
Hideyoshi folded his hands together in front of him once more after pushing his glasses up upon his nose, the lens catching the glare and partially hiding his deep blue eyes behind the reflection.  
Just this morning they had discovered it to be missing, and with who had been there just the day before...  
"Well..." The Director said to no one, "Maybe I did underestimate what you would get up to, now didn't I?.." His question was left unanswered but for the one who was now miles away in a different city, but no one to hear him ask it.  
Except, of course, the one that always listening.  
Taking a sip of a his cooling coffee, Hideyoshi paid it no mind as the lights above him flickered once...

* * *

The many soles of boots and shoes trampled their way across the sun-baked sidewalk of town, and among them was both Maru and Madoka, who's all attempts for finding out anything had so far proved fruitless.  
They had both started off by asking a couple of the locals in a Bakery near where they were staying, which had been the first failed attempt to finding anything. Maru had then suggested going to the library again, insisting that Kasama had one from a brief look-over of the city from the map that she had in her bracelet.  
The pink-haired mechanic had been right about there being a library - it was small, but it was big enough that they would hopefully be able to find something of use.  
However, that attempt went unsuccessful as well, since there was more of a limited variety of books in Kasama's library due to its smaller sized compared to the one in Mito.  
Now, the two of them had gone to walking along the sidewalk that was more than cooking underneath their feet, trying to devise their next course of action for this increasingly difficult mission. Neither of them knew where exactly the others of their party were, the decision to split up and search around the city to cover more ground being the one that was able to stick; perhaps they may be having better luck than the two of them were.  
Both had been lucky back in Mito when they had decided to investigate the library for anything that might be of use, but here was an entirely different scenario that could have something hiding in dark shadows or simply nothing at all, which was what Madoka had reasoned.  
She knew nothing about Kasama, and neither did anyone else in their group but for Kira as it seemed; she had hardly known anything about Mito either, but it didn't stop any of them from finding what they were looking for, even if it was just another bread crumb. Lithe fingers combed through her own hair a couple times, getting out a small tangle in the brown locks that would only form into a knot if she left it for too long.

At her side, Maru brushed aside a stray hair of her bangs before she looked up towards her blue-eyed teacher. "What should we do now, Chief?" The young mechanic asked, doing the only thing she knew how to do in her time of need and turning to her teacher for advice.  
"I'm not sure..." Madoka answered almost hopelessly, "We could try asking people but I'm sure how much good that would do." The shop owner crossed her right arm across her chest, just below her breasts, and used the hand of that arm to support her opposite elbow, cupping her own chin with her thumb and index finger in thought. "I suppose we hardly know anything about Kasama, either way.." The blue-eyed woman speculated, "The only one who really knows anything at all is Kira, apparently..."

"He's with Zyro, though." Maru reminded her teacher, a small edge to her voice at her own words.  
With his helpfulness in keeping them all grounded enough to work, and his distinct dislike of having to put up with anyone's whining, Kira was definitely a valuable helping hand in their search for the raging sociopath they were tailing; his history with both Zyro and the DNA did leave them wary of leaving him with the dual-haired blader, but Zyro's own trust in the pastel-haired sadist was enough to give them at least a bit of comfort.  
Madoka didn't say anything about Maru's words, even if she had acknowledged them with the fact that she was correct.  
Unfortunately, they didn't know where either of those two currently were in the city, so going to them on advice for where to look would be entirely futile.  
"Yeah, he is..." The former bey-mechanic said absently, eyes of turquoise focused on the smoothed out pavement before her as roughly half a dozen possible ideas came to mind.  
The lavender-eyed child next to her kept her eyes on her for a few more moments before she threw her gaze a bit more towards the ground, lifting her bracelet-adorned wrist up with the gleam of bright red that caught her eye.  
As she suspected, a small light on one part of the multi-purpose device was blinking a bright red, which was a sign of only one thing for certain so far.

A smile, which Madoka had always believed to rival the wide-eyed face of a kitten, made its way to Maru's lips as she announced happily, "Hey Madoka! The Director's calling!"

"Huh?" Madoka was brought out of her river of thoughts and plans at her young student's announcement, her arms falling back down to her sides and eyes making their way up to the pink head next to her.  
Unwilling to disrupt the flow of the sidewalk traffic, both teacher and apprentice stepped out of the way to the side, standing against the front outer wall of some small and almost rundown looking restaurant.  
Nobody spared them a second glance as the locals continued on their ways with shopping bags and loud children.  
Maru brought up the transparent screen that was projected from the bracelet on her wrist, the page before her seeming to be some sort of 'desktop' for her to access anything else she may need; but her small fingers tapped just over the blinking red dot in the corner of the screen that immediately opened a video-cam.  
Madoka bent her knees, her warm palms placed on them to balance her upper body as she looked into the newly brought up face of Tsubasa. There was a small smile on the man's lips, but the brunette woman noticed, however, that the Director did look disoriented and weary, likely a result from the many hours he had spent reviewing so many profiles from many different cities across the country.  
Madoka furrowed her brows together a bit at this, but decided against saying anything about how he looked.  
"Hey Tsubasa." Madoka greeted, placing a small smile of her own on her face.  
"Hey, you two." The golden-eyed man greeted in return, forcing a weary smile onto his caramel-colored lips, "I called to see how all of you are doing since yesterday. Did you have any luck?"

"A bit.." Madoka replied halfheartedly, "We're down in Kasama right now, but we haven't been able to find anything around here."  
A surprised flash passed through the weary Director's eyes. "What happened back in Mito?" The WBBA President asked in question, "I remember you being there only yesterday."  
A raised finger in a matter-of-fact way came from Maru, the information in her head ready at the mark should explanation ever be needed; and for this case, it most certainly was.  
"Me and Chief managed to find something back in Mito about temples all around Japan being dedicated to Nemesis." The young apprentice explained expertly, "We're trying to see if we can find anything around here that's kind of like that.. But we haven't found anything."  
One silver eyebrow of the caramel-skinned Director rose a centimeter above its original placement, golden eyes casting themselves downward as though in some train of immediate thought.  
"Temples, huh?..." Tsubasa asked absently, though there was no more on that subject to be said from him.  
"Something like that, yeah." Madoka answered, brushing a few strands of her brown hair out of the way of her eyes, "How's it going over there with you?" The silver-haired man's eyes, instead of meeting theirs, drifted over to one side of the screen, where his arm shifted from toying with something that was beyond their line of sight.  
"I haven't found anything yet, but I'm still working on it..." He responded wearily, "A few people are still sending me a few more files to look over, but so far I haven't been able to find anything... I'll see if I can find anything on those temples you were talking about too."

"Sounds good." Madoka agreed, her brows furrowing once more as she noticed the slight disoriented look in Tsubasa's golden eyes, something that she hadn't seen in his expression and behavior from the previous day. Had something happened there without their knowledge?...  
"Tsubasa, are you okay?" The shop owner asked, concern evident in her voice and drawing the weary Director's gaze back to the two of them, "You don't look so good.."  
Beside her, Maru cast her teacher a questioning glance, one eyebrow raised out of place before she looked back towards the golden-eyed man.  
"Oh, it's nothing." Tsubasa said dismissively, shaking his head softly and brushing an invisible piece of hair out of his eyes, "I'm just a bit tired, that's all. I'll be fine, though." The brunette woman said nothing in response, but let her troubled expression clear from her features and nodded.  
"Alright." She agreed, "If you say so." In vague reassurance, Tsubasa simply nodded with a weary smile on his lips.  
"Okay. I'll be sure to contact you later if I find anything." The WBBA President said in a way that Madoka felt were parting words, "Good luck, you two."  
With a simple goodbye, the face-cam that Tsubasa had previously been shown on closed itself out, leaving Maru with nothing the 'desktop' that remained as a default for her to access more of her bracelet.  
With no further use for the device, the pink-haired mechanic put the projected screen back into the advanced mechanical device on her wrist and lowered it to her side once again. Madoka took her warm palms off of her knees as she stood up straight, brushing a lock of her hair back over her shoulder as the tension in her legs eased.

"He didn't seem too happy, did he?" Maru questioned, lavender casting themselves up to meet turquoise as Madoka's body responded to the sound of someone speaking to her by looking at them. The blue-eyed teacher sighed through her nasal cavity and shifted her eyes towards the smoothed cement before her feet.  
"No, not really." The older female pondered, "But I guess we can't blame him, with how well he's been handling things lately.." Maru's shoulders sagged a bit, but she spoke nothing on the subject on how the gold-eyed Director was doing.  
They knew Tsubasa was handling all of it about as well as the rest of them were (all of them except for Kira, of course), so if his thoughts on everything that had happened in the last few weeks were what had caused him to seem so... Off... Than it was definitely reasonable.  
However, Madoka also knew that the silver-haired man wouldn't let his emotions and troubles get in the way of his endless work as the President of the WBBA, which would sometimes lead to sleep deprivation for him.  
Wordlessly, she hoped that he would get some sleep as the night came on instead of pulling an all-nighter like she had seen him do several times before.  
"Well, I'm sure he'll be okay.." The former bey-mechanic said with a defeated sigh, passing on her worry for the silverette into a different section of her brain and casting her lovely blue eyes back towards her young student, "How about we go get something to eat? I'm a little hungry right now."  
The young data-collector felt her stomach applaud at the idea of food, which had not crossed the pink-haired girl's mind for quite awhile that day. Her soft pink lips pulled up at the edges into that smile that she had once given so often, nodding her head eagerly and making her pony-tail bounce in response.

"Sounds good to me, Chief!" Maru exclaimed as positively as she could manage, and it was enough for Madoka to give a smile of her own. With simple small conversation passing between the two of them, both student and teacher merged with the flow of people walking down the sidewalk again, deciding to make their way around the block and head back down to that bakery they had previously been at to ask around.  
Passing by buildings and alleyways and pedestrians, the idea of some form of food being pleasing to both of the two, they never noticed the pair of eyes that watched them from the passing alleyway, illuminated in the darkness with their crimson red glow that was almost always there when shrouded by shadows.

For the very brief seconds that the two females had crossed paths with the darkened hallway between buildings, those eyes followed them until they were very soon out of his sight.  
Yet he remained there a few moments longer, a simple figure draped in the shadows cast by the angle of the sun at this hour of the day that nobody were to notice with their busy rushing and occupied selves, even with the very prominent feature of his eyes; blending in with the darkness and being so very incomplete.  
Then all at once, he was nothing, as though he had never been there to begin with...

* * *

While things had turned out useless for both Zyro and Kira on their first try at one of the many shrines that inhabited Kasama, they had much better luck on the second try.  
Of course, the two boys spoke no more of Kira's past time in Kasama for the rest of the way to the other shrine as the sadistic blader had demanded, but Zyro let his thoughts wander back to it only a few times; though the dual-haired boy was still quite curious, he knew better than to go prodding any further into Kira's personal stuff - and from the way he had reacted earlier when he seemed about to explain something, it really wasn't a subject the one-eyed boy liked talking about. The shrine that Kira had spoken of - known as the Sansho Shrine - had indeed been only a few streets away from where they had originally been with their rather dense conversation, and from the few people that seemed to come and go from it definitely wasn't as well visited as the Kasama Inari; knowing exactly what they were going do, having gone over the routine once with the original shrine they had been at.  
Going inside - which probably couldn't technically be considered 'outside' given the design of the main part of the building -, both Zyro and Kira had sought out the priest of the shrine, who wasn't very hard to find considering its small size and the few places that he had to been during the day.  
They had found the man kneeling in front of the alter on his knees, his head tilted down into his hands that were pressed together in prayer and worship to whatever god they believed in.  
To Zyro, who came from a very small town with a shrine that quite a few people paid their respects too, deemed it a bit rude at first glance to disturb the holy man in his prayers; even so, the desperate need for information that was their task won over upon all else.

"Uh.. Excuse me?" Zyro began politely yet reluctantly as the Bahamoote and Ifraid bladers came up beside the entranced priest, who slowly lifted his head in a calm reaction before unclasping his hands and standing upright.  
His pale eyes lay their gaze upon the two boys, absently adjusting his robes a bit from kneeling in front of the alter from some period of time.  
"Why, hello, children." The holy man greeted politely, granted that he cast a quick second glance towards Kira at the mere sight of his outfit (something that the priest of the Kasama Inari shrine had done as well), "Have you come to pray in the bliss of the Sansho shrine? Or have you come for some other reason." Kira's one eye met briefly with the fiery-spirited boy beside him, silently telling him to ask without words.  
Breathing steadily through his nose, Zyro went ahead and asked the question that he was sure no one would have expected a mere teenager to be wondering about.  
"Um... We were wondering if you knew anything about temples and shrines that were dedicated to Nemesis a long time ago." The emotionally-damaged blader explained, "Like, if any of them are still around..."  
Needless to say, the priest definitely seemed surprised. His expression definitely showed it, his previously calm features flashing into surprise at the question that he had definitely not expected to hear from these two boys - maybe the questionably clothed one, but certainly not the other.

"Well, um..." The black-clothed began, his words hanging off of his lips almost as if he had a loss for them, "...I don't understand why you would want to know such a thing.. The God of Destruction has long since been rid from this world, surely... Why would you want to know anything about those?"  
At this question, Zyro averted his eyes for a moment, trying to desperately to think of an excuse as quickly as possible before the priest would start to question his silence.  
However, Kira seemed to know exactly what to do as he spoke up almost immediately after Zyro fell at a loss for words.  
"Summer school project." The multicolor-haired blader said simply, placing on his hands squarely on his hips as he did so. Zyro cast Kira a glance, one that seemed to be gratitude - Kira didn't return it, but that was to be expected. The priest eyed him skeptically (he couldn't remember if there was indeed summer school this year for the children of Kasama), but seeing Zyro nod in agreement made him sigh softly.  
There was a few moments of remaining silence from the man before his lips finally parted to speak.

"Well, if it is for your education, I suppose it can't hurt..." The pale-eyed priest said with thought, before looking at the two younger males with a straight stance, "I can't say I know that much on the history of the worshipers of Nemesis, for my faith is with the temple and our god, but I have heard the stories from my mentors. There were a lot of temples dedicated to the God of Destruction centuries ago, but most of them have long since disappeared along with his worshipers... As for there being any left, I do remember tell of their being only a few of them left across Japan as a whole, but I'm almost certain there's barely anyone alive that knows where those would be.. I think I remember someone telling me about one being in the Ibaraki or Tochigi regions of Japan, but that's about it.. My knowledge is limited, but if you wanted to know anything more on the subject, I suggest that you ask those at the Sainen-ji Temple. I know for certain they know far more about it than I do."  
Both of the boys had been listening intently to what the priest had to say, and, though he wasn't able to supply them with much than what they had already known from both Maru and Madoka, he had proven to be a bit more help than the priest at the Kasama Inari Shrine, who had claimed not to know anything on the subject.  
"Um, okay..." Zyro said with a small smile, "Thanks." The man of holy power only gave a simple nod to the two boys.  
"Well, if there is nothing else you need..." The shrine-worshiper began, "Then I will ask that you please leave me be for now."

"Uh, yeah, thanks.." Zyro said awkwardly, simply nodding his head before turning away and heading in the direction that both he and the pastel-haired blader accompanying him had come from.  
Kira, with nothing to say to the man, just turned and followed after Zyro at a brisk pace; as he did so, he couldn't ignore the feeling of the holy man casting him another disapproving glance at him before he turned back towards the alter and resumed his original stance.  
"Well, _that_ was professional." The multicolored-haired sadist said sarcastically as he came up beside Zyro once more, his single eye glancing towards the blue-eyed blader. Both of them made their way across the smoothed out area of cement, heading back towards the sidewalk and planning to make their way back to the hotel to meet up with the others - suggesting that their other companions were there already.  
"Hey, I tried!" The dual-haired teenager protested, "Besides, he _did_ give us something, didn't he?"

"Yes..." Kira responded with a sigh tracing his words, "But you were pretty blunt with it if you ask me, Zyro... Either way, he was apparently easy to get things out of, so I suppose you didn't do half bad."  
The Fire Blader furrowed his eyebrows together for a moment before letting them go back to their original position. "Yeah, I guess..." The emotionally-damaged boy said in response, his blue irises looking back in front of them as the two of them came to the entrance of the sacred ground, "We should probably go back and tell everyone else about what we found out, if they're there."

"If they're not, they will be." Kira said as he reached up one of his hands and brushed a few stray strands of his multi-colored hair out of his face, "And before you ask it, yes, I know where the Sainen-ji Temple is." Blue orbs quickly cast themselves upon the fool's gold-eyed sadist in surprise, a look that was not returned from the other male as he had no reason to do so.  
Kira's footsteps were a bit lighter than his going down the small flight of stairs leading up to the higher, more sacred ground, a type of distant tension seeming to be between them - very likely caused from their earlier conversation that didn't appear to have sat well with Kira.  
Breathing outwards through his nose, Zyro simply nodded his head to acknowledge Kira's words.  
"Okay." He said solemnly, turning and walking back down the sidewalk just beside the slightly older male.  
There wasn't a lot that any of them really knew about Kira, Zyro included, and it certainly wouldn't have been expected that he would have lived here - the Ifraid Blader had never even really given Kira's place of origin that much thought before then.  
Despite that, with new knowledge that he had gained from not even a half hour prior, Zyro didn't fail to notice the way Kira's shoulders seemed more tense than usual as they walked down the streets; he couldn't exactly imagine what that could be about, but Kira himself knew all too well.

The memories were starting to come back - and he didn't like it at all...

* * *

Night took longer to arrive in the summer than it did in the winter months, still shedding light upon one half of the world even into the early hours of the evening before darkness was finally able to consume the land in its dark comfort.  
The amount of traffic would lessen from the darkening day, and wildlife but for that of the nocturnal trait would retreat into their homes and dens and burrows until came the morning. Most people would likely be getting ready for bed, heading home from work after a long day and wishing to sink into their comforters and sleep the night away.  
All except for Takanosuke and Sakyo, who had reasoned with each other that traveling by night this time may indeed be the better option after what had happened earlier that day.  
Sakyo had made Takanosuke rest for a few hours longer, being sure to keep an eye on the fever that had been grazing his skin previously - but remarkably, it had dissipated rather quickly.  
The Dragoon Blader knew very well that, with heat stroke, a fever didn't just fade away within 12 hours - the cerulean-eyed boy should've been bed-ridden for a couple days a least, but he had said that he was fine.  
Indeed, he did seem okay.  
The blonde-haired blader had rested a couple more hours before he had woken up again at around 8:00-8:30, where Sakyo had once more checked on how his fever was doing; it may have been that it wasn't even there at all, which was something that they were both grateful for.

The Griffin Blader had had a bit of trouble walking for a moment when he had gotten up, the dizziness briefly returning and his legs almost giving out from the amount of immobility that had been requested of him for most of the day, but it quickly passed and he was left to walk on his own.  
The two boys had gathered what little they had brought with them, Takanosuke retrieving his hoodie from the chair across the room, Sakyo cleaning everything up with silent accuracy and leaving the room practically identical to the way it had been when they had arrived.  
The receptionist was still at the front desk of the hotel, and allowed the two of them to check out without a second thought about how late it was - after all, they did have people checking out in the dead of night on certain occasions.  
The two bladers had left the hotel and made their way out onto the sidewalk, Takanosuke following closely to Sakyo since the redhead seemed to have a better sense of direction than he himself did - that, and he had no idea where they were to be going next.  
As was already blatant, Ibaraki had nothing that would be able to help the two of them oyt in the slightest, so it practically useless to stay there other than if Takanosuke decided to suddenly faint again.  
The young blonde seemed to be fine, however, so Sakyo didn't feel the need to worry too much on the subject.

The last rays of the sun were just peaking over the top of the mountains, giving anyone that needed the light a few sparing moments before it would go out and head off to the other side of the world where it would be waking others, the golden, orange, and pink streaks rippling cross the sky in a gorgeous symphony that wouldn't last much longer.  
With cerulean orbs, Takanosuke took a few seconds to admire it as he walked alongside the blader that he followed around out of idolization and admiration.  
"So, where are we going now, Sakyo?" The curly-haired boy asked, his eyes turning to cast their gaze upon the slightly older blader.  
It the dual-haired blader a moment to answer, but he did after a few moments with, "Omitama. If we can, we'll try and head towards Ishioka and see if there's anything there."

"Okay." Takanosuke said enthusiastically, practically the exact opposite of how Sakyo sounded - of course, he himself was the one who had gotten the trench coat-wearing boy to come along with him. But despite practically pulling him along, the red-and-white-haired blader hadn't spoken any word of complaint on the situation; not that he was really the type to even talk that much anyway.  
So in constant silence, the blonde-haired boy followed just behind the Dragoon Blader, allowing him to lead the way since he seemed to know his way around quite a bit better than he himself did. It didn't take long to leave Ibaraki, the very small outskirts of the small town passing them by as they walked through the night, the slightly cooler air caressing skin that had previously been slicked with sweat and overheated in earlier hours.  
As much as it would completely mess up his sleeping schedule, Takanosuke deemed that this was definitely a better idea than travelling in the daytime, when he had been ignorant to the fact that he could indeed die from heat stroke while they were out.  
"It's a lot cooler out now." The cerulean-eyed boy commented, his blonde curls bouncing softly with his walking movements, "Again... Thanks for taking care of me, Sakyo."

"Don't worry about it." The stoic blader said solemnly, that gruff and cold tone in his voice as always.  
"Well, thanks, anyways." Takanosuke said for what may have been the umpteenth time, scratching the back of his neck for a moment.  
It was then that he noticed how dark it had become, the lack of clouds letting the moon shine brightly down onto the earth along with its twinkling companions, the last rays of sunlight having disappeared over the mountain-tops with nothing but a thin line of greenish-yellow to remain in place before it too would soon disappear.  
Both boys stuck to the side of the road, no cars able to be seen coming within their line of sight.  
There was the faint sound of chirping, the hooting of an owl that made Takanosuke flinch ever so slightly, and their footsteps that sounded from behind them with the soles of their shoes making contact with the pavement - those were the only sounds that surrounded them, but for the harmonic chirping of cicadas.  
Wherever the owl was, it definitely wasn't anywhere near them, as far as the Griffin Blader was able to tell - if anything, it may have been some distance away from them. If so, than it was definitely a loud bird.  
But every time he heard it, he couldn't help the small flinch that he reacted with. He had seen an owl somewhere before... In whatever he had seen earlier that day, when he had looked at Sakyo and seen ( _experienced, felt_ ) all those things that he was now having a hard time making out; but he remembered the owl.  
The blonde boy tried not to think too much on the subject. However, no matter how hard he tried, the thought would come back to him; it made him uneasy. For a moment, he lifted his hand up to his nose before pulling it away and looking at it - there was nothing, unlike what he had felt earlier that day from the small metallic taste that had wandered into his mouth. Shaking his head, deciding that there was nothing to relatively worry about, the boy simply followed his closest friend.

Away from their line of sight, a raven with dead and blank eyes observed them, flapping its wings to keep itself airborne as it registered all that it needed to.  
As dark as the night itself, blocking out the stars for no more than a second in small sections with its dark presence, the raven let out a throaty squawk before disappearing elsewhere into the night.


	19. Chapter 18 - Fading Dreams

Chapter 18 - Fading Dreams

* * *

Almost at once, Zyro knew he was dreaming.

It took him a moment, but he recognized this setting better than ever.

He was on the sidewalk, entirely dressed and entirely dry, facing the street - but it wasn't Metal Bey City, he could say that for certain.

It was the city they were already in, Kasama. The rain fell hard down from the sky onto the misty streets, making the dim noises of dripping and splashing, but - as always - nothing hit him.  
The cars drove by quickly, their windows fogged over and their exteriors colorless, and they didn't make a single sound as they raged on past him, just like he remembered... Zyro turned his head to look down the street, seeing the street lights blinking only yellow, unable to turn any other color as though they had all decided to malfunction at once in this unfortunate weather.  
The caws and squawks of crows echoed against the soft sound of rain all around him, the ravens mixed in with their throaty calls of mourning and anguish.  
These dreams were always the same, and he remembered them all as clear as day from the time he was a child up until 3 weeks ago, when he had given Zyro a final warning of Gingka's oncoming demise. The rain, the cars, the lights, the birds, it was always the same; now, there was only one other thing that would make it all complete.  
Zyro blinked once, a calm look on his face even though he knew what these dreams always implied as he turned to face down the sidewalk - as always, he was there.  
The same boy, dressed entirely in black clothing suited for the rain, covering all of his body and most of his face, making it impossible to see his eyes.  
The shadows that covered him were amplified by the black umbrella he held up over his head with both of his hands, making him seem slightly smaller than he actually was - but either way, he was still small.

"Zyro..." The other boy greeted, his voice soft and barely above a whisper, one of the sweetest sounds that made the dual-haired blader remember all the times before when they met here.  
"Hi..." Zyro greeted in return with a small smile on his face, something that the other boy did not return in his natural stoic nature that made Zyro feel a bit better.  
A moment later, the smile faded from Zyro's face, his expression growing sorrowful as he brought back up all the times that he had these dreams, and what had always happened right after.  
"Something bad is going to happen, right?" It was hardly even a question anymore, but Zyro asked it regardless.  
The other did not answer at first, shifting slightly and lowering his head in the slightest bit to indicate his unseen eyes were cast towards the ground. "Zyro..." The black-clothed boy said softly, looking up, though his features were eternally invisible, "You can feel it... Can't you?..."  
Zyro's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but he didn't ask questions against his old childhood friend.  
"Feel what?" The Fire Blader asked, the rain that dripped onto the ground around them seeming to mute itself out.  
"Why you're not giving up..." The dream-projected adolescent said absently, his voice as soft as a mouse as it had always been, "You should know.."

Zyro looked at the other boy for a moment, glancing towards the rain-soaked pavement for a few moments as he tried to decipher the words that his old friend spoke.  
He could feel the other's unseen gaze upon him, and looked back up towards the shadows that covered most of his face - no matter how hard he ever tried, he could never see through that stoic, dream-induced darkness.  
"You can feel it..." The other said softly, "He's fading..." Zyro stood there for several moments in confusion, staring at the boy that he had been some form of friends with throughout half of his life so far.

What was he trying to say?...

What did he mean?...

He only ever had these dreams when something bad was about to happen to someone, or too a number of people...

How could things possibly get any worse for them than it already was in their current situation, back in the waking world?  
There was a silence between them that seemed to last centuries, a silence that Zyro had always been comfortable with as a child when they would hold hands and walk down the never-ending sidewalk, no words needed to communicate between them.  
The silence was all around them, except for the soft tip-tap of rain and the light croaks of ravens and crows.  
The other's lithe and pale fingers shifted on the umbrella he was holding, and then something happened that had never happened before throughout the many times the dual-haired blader had had this dream.

The black umbrella dropped to the ground.

A soft gasp escaped Zyro's lips, staring in shock at the black device that kept one dry in the rain, and then looked up towards the boy that he had known forever.  
All the other did was stand there, his hands now at his sides and his face still covered by the eternal shadows cast by the black hood of his raincoat.

The silence remained.

Mouth opened in the slightest bit, the other boy slowly reached out towards him with his left hand, suddenly seeming so far away as he reached out for him without words.  
Something about this made Zyro's stomach drop, which he wasn't sure was even really impossible in a dream.  
As if upon instinct, he began to reach out in response to take his childhood friend's hand - but they never did touch.

Zyro gasped sharply as he opened his eyes, finding himself staring up at the ceiling of the hotel room, eyes wide and breath held in the sudden shock of being so wide awake in an instant.  
The world came back to him quickly, the vivid sight of his dream world gone from his sight and replaced with the reality that he had been in before falling asleep much earlier in the night.  
Slowly, the dual-haired boy let out the breath he was holding once the tight ache in his chest had begun to form, trying to steady his breathing as he quickly sat up in the bed and took a look at his surroundings.  
Everything was almost exactly as it was when they had all gone to bed to ready themselves for tomorrow, when they would hopefully be moving on their next objective in their search for that indigo-haired psychopath.

Slowly, Zyro's breathing calmed down, letting his slightly tense muscles relax as he took it all in once more.  
The only light that filled the room was from the window, the moonlight pouring in through the translucent blinds and filling the room with a soft light that gave the Fire Blader enough to cling on to.  
The walls were where they should be... They weren't any closer, even if darkness always made everything seem smaller.  
Huffing softly, Zyro slumped over slightly, his brows furrowing together at the ache in his back caused by the stiffness of sleep, pushing part of his bangs out of his face and feeling the light layer of sweat that he was covered in.  
He was then that he noticed how hot it actually was.

But of course, it was summer, so why wouldn't it be near stifling?

The ceiling fan was whirring around on high, making it at least slightly cooler for the 4 of them that currently occupied the small room; himself, Kira, Shinobu, and Benkei.  
The Ifraid Blader's blue eyes looked over to the right side of the room, gazing at the bed that both Shinobu and Benkei were currently occupying.  
The latter had taken up half of the bed on one side, while the much smaller male looked like he was going to fall off the edge of the mattress nearest himself with the slightest movement. He almost laughed at that, but then turned to look over at Kira, who had reluctantly shared the same bed with him again.  
The pastel-haired boy wasn't even under the blankets, but rather on top of them with his side still fully made, and was still fully clothed in his usual wear other than the removal of his belt and his boots.  
His head also wasn't on the pillow either, but the Bahamoote Blader seemed to be sleeping soundly just the way he was, facing away from the emotionally damaged boy and well at the edge of the mattress.

Now that Zyro recalled looking at Kira before he himself had fallen asleep yesterday (given that it was currently 1:34 in the morning) the slightly older boy may as well have not moved an inch all night.  
All of them were still okay... Nothing bad had happened, or at least not yet.  
Taking his eyes away from the other boy on the opposite side of the bed, Zyro looked down towards his knees with a solemn look on his face, tons of thoughts racing through his head at a mile a minute.

He breathed softly, perfectly recalling the dream that he had spent his lifetime having, that had only even meant one thing when the vivid image of rain and birds and cars appeared before his eyes...

Something was going to happen to one of them, if not all of them...

Or perhaps not even to anyone in their group of 9, instead to somebody else that they may be close to, to people that they - maybe - didn't even know...  
But the chances of the latter were slim to none, considering all that had happened in merely 3 weeks.  
But the way it had played out this time had been different than ever before...  
3 weeks ago, it had been different than when he had been a kid, before the Nemesis Crisis when he had been 8 years and met with his dream-projected childhood friend for what he had always thought to be the last time.  
They had not held hands in silence, they had not listened to the rain as they walked down a never-ending sidewalk; they had spoken, and that was when Zyro had been told the truth of Gingka's condition.

But this time, it was far more different than it had ever been. The other had never dropped the umbrella, it had always been firmly in his grasp with one or both hands, and he had never reached out to Zyro as he had this time.  
Never seeming so strained, never seeming so desperate...  
The Fire Blader let out a shaky sigh and shook his head, bringing one of his hands up to his damp forehead and moving his bangs out of the way.  
Confusion filled his very being, tearing at him and frustrating him endlessly as he tried to make sense of all... But he couldn't.

 _"You can feel it... Can't you?..."_

Feel what, exactly?...

 _"Why you're not giving up..."_

Those words meant something, he knew that all too well after having countless dreams that were always the same...

 _"You can feel it... He's fading..."_

In the ringing silence of the room, Zyro sat there for what felt like hours, lost entirely in his own thoughts...

* * *

It was late, and Kite couldn't sleep.

It felt like he had been laying there, staring up at the ceiling with one arm around his little brother, for hours - in fact, he probably had; he didn't bother to look at the clock.  
Many thoughts clouded his knowledge filled brain, constant wonders and doubts racing through his head as he stared up at the blurry ceiling (he had taken his glasses off to sleep more comfortably).  
Thoughts on what was going to happen once this was all over, how they were going to get to and defeat the deranged sociopath so that it could _be_ over, how all of it had even happened in the first place.  
He kept thinking about these things quite a bit, but they didn't tend to keep him up at night like this...  
The few times that he had been kept up at night about any of this was when he had nearly lost Eight on their way to confront Alcorin; thinking about that one moment didn't fail to make him feel sick to his stomach every time it crossed his mind.

Eight was fine, and that was all that mattered.

When they had admitted "Gingka" to the hospital not long after the battle that had been the redhead's real fate, Kite had taken his little brother to get an X-Ray.  
He had been fine, despite the impact that he had made on the flat of his head from when they were battling a brainwashed Ren.  
But the doctor had said that his brother was just walking away with a bruised head; along killer headache that had started effecting the small blunette not long after he had woken up from his state of unconsciousness.  
He was glad for that, but it brought him back to all that had occurred in almost 2 months.

Considering they would all be heading back to school some time during mid-to-late September, everything seemed to have happened so fast.  
However they were going to end this was definitely something that could never predict.  
He wasn't sure why that was bothering him, why it was keeping him awake and making him stare up absently at the hotel room ceiling in constant thought; it was likely all the stress with what had been happening, whatnot with Zyro, and Eight, as well as the revelation of Gingka's death which had greatly shocked all of them.  
None of them would've thought that all of this would take place so quickly after they had defeated the DNA.

How could so much just happen so fast?  
Kite chuckled softly to himself, staring up towards the ceiling with half-lidded blue eyes.

 _"Shit happens..."_ Kite reasoned in his head, _"Crazy shit..."_

Chaos theory, as they called it.

The brunette scientist had looked in on said theory many times, taking quite an interest in it and the butterfly effect; however, he always chose to stick to his logic and data for his success.  
Of course, maybe the theory could come into play with the thought that Alcorin was, for a fact, the son of Nemesis; it wasn't everyday something like that just came out.  
Either way, wherever supposed demi-god was, they would hopefully find out his location soon enough; Zyro and Kira had told all of them of what they had found, telling them that the priests at the Sainen-ji Temple would likely know more about those shrines and temples built to the God Of Destruction.  
They planned to leave in the morning after they all got something to eat - from the sounds of it, the place wasn't that far away.  
Kite sighed softly, looking down towards his little brother who was sleeping soundly against him, curled up into himself in a way that he himself just couldn't help smiling to.

 _"You were lucky, Eight..."_ Kite said in his thought to no one but himself, _"You came out okay.."_ As gently as possible, the data-obsessed blader turned over onto his side, making sure not to disrupt his younger brother's slumber as he did so and adjusting his arm a bit from underneath the Orochi Blader. Quietly pulling the pillow down towards him to lay his head on, the older Unabara brother sighed through his nose as he looked with forlorn eyes upon the much smaller male.  
 _"I won't let anything happen to you..."_ He thought in his mind, moving part of Eight's blue fringe out of his face for him with his free hand, _"I promise... I won't let him hurt you again.."_  
With his younger brother's soft breathing and peaceful face as a lullaby, Kite slowly lulled himself to sleep, shooing away the previous thoughts that had kept him occupied for the probable hours he had lain there in silence...

* * *

With permission from the Director to leave for the night, Sichiro, who had finished all that he had needed to do that day, and packed up what little things he needed to bring back to his apartment with him, walked out of the building through the front way.  
The raven bid farewells to a few of his co-workers on the lower levels before exiting the building, passing by several others who were getting ready to leave for the night and return to their homes for some well-deserved rest after long hours of work.  
Ayano had informed him - before he had left the upper floors - that she would be heading back home as well shortly; also that the Director was allowing her to have the day off tomorrow, to which she sounded greatly relieved about.  
All Sichiro did was a give a smile and a 'good for you' before departing onto the lower levels of the building.  
Now, he walked along the sidewalk, carrying with him only a briefcase that contained no more than a few papers and supplies that he sometimes had the need to bring.

His long hair swayed gently behind him with his movements, picking up on the small breeze that came with the slightly cooler night air and making his bangs caress his pale forehead and cheeks.

The night did little to comfort him, however, as he walked along the sidewalk uneasily, a bone-chilling feeling slowly crawling down his spine as the silence rang in his ears. Very few cars passed on the streets, and there were few people to cross paths with on the sidewalk considering the hour.  
All there was was him and silence, the sound of parties and teens and traffic stops far off in the distance as he turned the corner down one street with stiff movements.  
He shouldn't be worrying - he took this route every time he headed back to his home from the WBBA headquarters, and in all the time that he had done so, not one thing had taken place that would obstruct his way home.  
Construction and the like was the only exception. The grey-eyed man sighed shakily, breathing in through his nose calmly as he tried to keep his composure and not break into a run from the fear of what lurked in the dark.

Sichiro knew very well that it was foolish to worry over something so pointless, that everything was fine, that they were all back in a city miles away where he didn't have to worry about them as long as it stayed that way.  
But he had every reason to worry, from what he had done back there on sheer impulse, from the emotions that came back from that day ( _Don't let them know, don't let them find out, don't let them know it was her..._ ) and made him react automatically.  
He would be damned if they didn't already know...  
But maybe they wouldn't know, since _he_ had been only one really watching...  
They could be watching him for all he knew, with how advanced their technology was from the amount of 'research' and the 'experimenting' they did.

Sichiro's heart pounded in his ears, not giving him any peace as he walked briskly down the sidewalk, getting ever nearer to his residence where there would be no one watching him, where he would safe from the prying eyes suspicious looks.  
Or at least for awhile, until the morning came where he would once again go through his routine of getting ready for the day ahead.

 _"Come on, calm down..."_ The raven told himself silently, _"It's fine, you'll be fine... They won't know about him, about either of them. It'll be fine..."_

It didn't matter how many times he told himself that, however.  
As much as he thought about it, as much as he told himself over and over again that nothing bad was going to happen to any of them, he couldn't really convince himself that it was true.  
 _"Just keep calm, you're almost there..."_ He chided to himself, throwing a lock of black hair back over his shoulder and trying to appear nonchalant about it.  
Every further step he took contradicted his fast-beating heart even at his brisk pace, hurrying up to the crosswalk in order to get to the other side of the street before the light turned green again.

 _"They're not watching you..."_ Sichiro thought to himself, hearing the sound of his own thoughts in his head and knowing full well he didn't fully believe that, _"You're fine... It's all gonna be fine.."_  
The apartment building he lived in was just a block up the street; he could see that just under half of the side of the building he could see still had the lights on, implying that people were still awake.  
The thought of walking into his apartment, turning all of the lights on and closing his curtains, isolating himself inside, was almost overwhelming.  
Nobody would be there to see him, nobody would be watching him, nobody would be there to bother him and make him believe that he was being watched more than he already did.

They weren't watching him... He knew that very well couldn't...

But he could.

They had _him_ , and the thought that they would still be able to use him for this purpose did not do anything to ease the goosebumps on his arms or lower the hairs on the back of his neck.

That's right...

They had _him_...

The steel-eyed raven's fears had never really be able to get to him that often, as he had learned to always be well in control of himself in tense situations (such as the ones that had occurred lately), but the fear he had felt when they were there, when he learned he had to go there, had somehow gotten the better of him.  
Maybe now it did the same, since he couldn't remember when he had started running, when the apartment building had gotten so close in such a short amount of time.  
He tried to tell himself to stop, to stop running and make himself seem more suspicious to everyone else than he very likely already did - but his body wasn't listening to him.

Everything passed by faster than it previously had, his legs carrying him to the one place he knew ( _hoped_ ) he would be safe from watchful and prying eyes.  
He pulled open one of the glass double doors and hurried inside before it was even fully open, hurrying down the halls without even a second glance at the janitor who looked at him strangely as he ran past with a solemnly terrified look on his face.

Sichiro couldn't bring himself to care about anything else as he hurried up the stairwell to the 3rd floor of the building, skipping several stairs on the way up and grabbing at the railing as if to pull himself upward as he continued his quick ascent.  
From years of a routine in coming home from work, some form of instinct pulled his body automatically through the door to the 3rd floor hallway, hurrying down it at a somewhat slower pace of ragged breaths and wide eyes.  
Approaching the door to his apartment - marked 3-12 - the long-haired man took his keys out of his pocket, his fingers automatically finding the key to unlock his apartment. Hurriedly, he did just that.  
Opening the door he practically threw his briefcase inside before it was fully open, running inside and using the backside of his body to slam it shut behind him.  
The sound rang heavily through his dark apartment for a moment before it faded, leaving in the frightening silence with nothing but his ragged breathing.

Sichiro's long hair hung over his face, his pupils dilated slightly as he stared down at the carpeted floor of his home in delayed shock.  
His hands shook as his palms pressed against the door, his body still in the same position from slamming the door shut which - for some reason - almost seemed like hours ago. Everything had gone by so fast, it all seemed like it had been years, when it had been maybe 5 minutes since he had started running hysterically in the first place.  
Entire frame shaking from the aftershock of quick events, Sichiro took the hand closest to the door handle and turned the lock on it, hearing a satisfying click as what little defense he had clicked into place.

Inwardly, Sichiro cursed at himself for his behavior... For letting the fears that he had always been able to keep relatively at bay get the better of him and send him into a fit of hysteria and panic like they used to when he was far younger.  
All because of the one thing that he had kept at bay for years, that he had hardly even thought about in years until now...  
The raven let out a hard sigh, trying to regain the composure he had lost altogether for a few minutes as best he could, leaning back against the door frame for support.  
It was meaningless, entirely meaningless and stupid. There was no reason to get worked up over nothing, they were all miles away from here and there was no way they could actually be watching him... But of course, they absolutely could be.

"Dammit..." Sichiro cursed quietly, tucking a few strands of long hair behind his ears, before pushing himself away from the door.  
His ragged breathing had calmed itself, coming out now in more even pants from exhaustion; his legs ached slightly, which he probably guessed from running all the way up here so fast with no chance of stopping himself.  
Swallowing hard, the steel-eyed raven knelt down to pick up the briefcase he had thrown on the floor, and then reached over to flick on the hall light in order to brighten the interior of the apartment. Maybe, at least for a little while, he could actually at least somewhat safe in a home that now felt quite unwelcoming...

* * *

Usually, when things didn't go his way, Alcorin was quite less than happy.  
He had never liked it when things didn't turn out the way he expected them to, but he was always able to twist it around to make it go his way.  
That was what he had done back in Metal Bey City, when Ren had lost her battle, when Kira had decided to help them out, when that Legendary Blader - Dynamis, he believed - had shown up and taken Maru to find answers.  
He had been able to deal with the Guardian just fine, and hadn't even bothered to do anything with the girl, considering she would not likely be able to get out.  
Only, she had, but he had taken care of the information she had found himself as well, leaving her in a sorrowful state of disappointment.

Yes, he could indeed make it all go his way by bending their path to his will.

That, of course, was what he thought about now as he made his way down the stone stairs from the balcony that gave him such a view of the land, knowing exactly how much progress both groups had made.  
Takanosuke and Sakyo were now travelling by night, and Zyro and the others had seemingly gained other information that would lead them further along from their current stop in Kasama.  
The albino knew how close they were getting, and it was a bit too close for his comfort... He would have to do something about that.

With almost silent steps, the sociopath made his way through the many corridors and rooms and halls that consisted of this place that reeked with darkness and power.  
He had practically memorized the place, knew its tricks, knew its faults, and he had no problem getting around.  
After all, there was only really one other place he had even spent his time. Robes dragging loosely behind him, the albino soon found himself at the stairs that lead up into a grand hall he had been in so many times before.

 _"They won't find him..."_ He thought to himself, climbing the stairs and allowing his robes to drag along behind him, which pulled his arms back slightly because of the sleeves, _"Even_ if _they ever do... They won't take him from me.. They won't ever leave.."_

Footsteps echoing in the vast hall, eyes illuminating the darkness in a cat-like way, white hair brushing ever so slightly against equally as white skin, Alcorin made his way over to his catatonic brother.  
Half-lidded eyes staring at nothing, body limp and simply sitting there without a conscious to occupy the empty shell that he was left as, Gingka was all he had. A small chuckle escaped his throat through close lips, a small smile making its way onto his face with that sick joy that coursed through him.  
Walking up to him, their feet practically side by side with the closeness, Alcorin looked at his brother with crimson eyes filled with that sickening love, that twisted joy he felt whenever he thought about the fact that, once more, they were together.

"Your _friends_ are coming, dear brother..." Alcorin said to the catatonic redhead, knowing full well that he wasn't capable of hearing him, "I know how that would make you feel, if you were awake.. But you aren't... And I won't let them get to you.."  
Narrowing crimson eyes, the albino placed his right hand upon Gingka's left, his fingers partially intertwining with the unresponsive's bladers at an awkward angle.  
Almost immediately, the son of Nemesis felt that jolt rush through his skin, practically setting nerves on fire for a brief moment before it disappeared and faded into that hypnotic wavelength wavelength.  
Through parted lips escaped a giggle that always struck fear into those who heard from the accursed voice it belonged to.  
There was nothing had made either of them more whole than this.

"I've waited far too long for you to be taken away from me, Gingka..." The albino said softly, his voice echoing through the silent and empty cavern, "It doesn't matter to me if _you_ care about what happens to dear little Zyro... Because _I_ don't.."  
Slowly, Alcorin slipped his off of Gingka's, his fingertips brushing against the skin of the other's fingers like the feet of a spider; skin that - at least halfway up his arm - matched his perfectly...  
A small chuckle escaped him once more, and with nothing more to say to his unresponsive brother, he turned and walked away. The only room he had for love in his blackened heart was for Gingka, and nothing else.  
All he had said about his long deceased father to the rest of them was just hallow praise with no real meaning - but being the gullible _humans_ they were, why wouldn't they believe it?

Zyro and his little friends, despite being far away from him with no knowledge of where he was yet, were getting rather to close for his liking.  
He would take care of them... He would break them, as he had already broke them, and they would break themselves in turn with the guilt and anguish.

As for Takanosuke and Sakyo, he would definitely handle them if they truly did become more trouble than they were worth.  
Treading down the steps like he had come up them - silently, carefully, robes dragging lightly behind him -, Alcorin simply couldn't help it as he the fingertips of his right hand brushed against the palm of it.  
There, he felt the slightest rise of skin that was almost completely unnoticeable; where the slightest off-white remnants of a scar lay since birth.


	20. Chapter 19 - Connecting The Pieces

Chapter 19 - Connecting The Pieces

* * *

Takanosuke had no idea what time it was when he and Sakyo had arrived in Omitama, other than the fact that it was probably the middle of the night, as the moon had yet to disappear from the sky and the sun had no indication of peeking over the Eastern horizon.  
It wasn't that much of a surprise to him, though, since Sakyo had previously said that it likely wouldn't take that long to get from Ibaraki to the current town. Even so, it had still seemed like forever.  
Either way, travelling by night had definitely been a good idea on Sakyo's part, given what had occurred with himself just the day before; yes, it would probably mess up both of their sleeping schedules entirely (of course, he had no idea of when exactly it was that Sakyo slept), but if it meant being way cooler than it was in the daytime than it was pretty worth it.  
Making their way into the city from the outskirts to downtown, both bladers barely bothered to give a glance at their surroundings.  
There wasn't much to see; given the time of night, Omitama seemed pretty dead, even with as big as it was.  
The only places that appeared to still be open were a few passing bars and fast food restaurants - nothing that they needed, especially the former. Takanosuke could only guess that the plan was the find a hotel - if any were still open at this time of night - and get a room there until they were ready to leave. Of course, when they left depended on if they found anything that could potentially lead them to the sociopath that they were chasing after.  
Not that they really knew exactly what they were looking for, but they could at least try.

Blonde curls moving along with him as he glanced around at bit at their current surroundings, Takanosuke decided to be the first one to break the long string of slightly uncomfortable silence.  
"This places seems pretty empty right now, Sakyo." The Griffin commented, "You think any hotels would even let people check in when it's this late?"

"Some do." Sakyo answered simply, "If there are none, than we'll wait until morning."

"How long until morning?" The cerulean-eyed blonde asked, but he received no answer from his dual-haired companion. He didn't mind, though.  
The traffic lights and street lamps were all there really was to provide them light besides the beams of light from the moon to light their way, all sources illuminating the sidewalk and the streets a fairly. Takanosuke wasn't entirely sure what different positions of the moon meant, but he was fairly sure that it would be quite awhile until the sun was ready to come up.  
Considering what time they had left Ibaraki, it was probably the very early morning when most people were definitely still asleep in their beds.  
Shrugging his shoulders slightly, the potential seer simply followed the slightly older teen down the illuminated sidewalk.

"I wonder where Zyro and the others are right now..." Takanosuke absently thought aloud, looking up towards the sky slightly as he followed along beside his companion, "They said they were looking for Alcorin took, right?.." Once more, there was only silence from Sakyo, other than a quick glance at a blonde head from red irises before they went back to looking ahead of them. Either way, the Griffin Blader continued talking, almost absent-minded.  
"They might be finding more than we are, right now.." He said thoughtfully, "Maybe we should have gone with them when Ren told us about the whole thing... Oh well.."  
Eyes facing upwards, the blonde watched as the bright beams of the street lights passed by at an even pace, still being sure to watch where he was going so that he trip or run into a pole or something. Either way, Sakyo would probably assure that he didn't.  
It really was a curious thought to him about where Zyro and the others could be exactly.  
They had all set out a day before Takanosuke had even suggested actually tracking down the blue-haired psychopath that they had all previously perceived to be dead, so they were likely far ahead of them in whatever direction they had gone.  
Either way, they were probably all off sleeping somewhere right now like most people were.  
Sighing outwardly, Takanosuke's half-lidded blue eyes looked down towards the ground for a moment before looking straight ahead again, deciding to stop with his mindless talking that Sakyo probably wouldn't answer to other than in glances at him.  
But almost the moment he looked straight ahead, something was there.

Something white...

Something that his own eyes may have been showing them in their potential psychic vision.  
The blonde boy never got to see what it was before a loud ringing sound filled his ears at a high pitch, making him stop in his tracks and grip the side of his head with one hand.  
A sound of discomfort escaped through lightly gritted teeth, tears forming at the edges of the blonde's eyelashes as his head pounded with the intense ringing in his ears.  
Hearing the small sound of vague pain from the younger's lips, Sakyo stopped and looked over his shoulder to check on the blonde, only to find him gripping his head with one hand with a contorted look of discomfort on his face.  
Almost immediately, as if some sort of paternal instincts that he had developed from simply being around the younger male, Sakyo stepped over to his side, a look of cold concern in his eyes.

"Takanosuke?" The red-and-white-haired blader called out softly, his voice barely being heard over the sound of ringing in the Griffin Blader's ears.  
A light dizziness washed over the blonde, making him stagger forward slightly while fighting to keep his balance as the loud ringing pounding through his head seemed to start to mute itself. Takanosuke felt someone put a hand on his chest to keep him up right and another hand on his back to steady him further.  
As quickly as it had happened, the ringing seemed top stop, quickly becoming quieter before it disappeared altogether.  
The dizziness dissipated quickly as well, allowing the blonde to hold himself upright on his own.  
Slowly, Takanosuke lowered his hand front the side of his head and opened his cerulean eyes, looking forward to try and see what had been there before he had been unable to focus on anything else but that intense ringing. But nothing was there.

"Takanosuke?" A voice beside him called softly, almost making the Griffin Blader jump in surprise before there was the sudden remembrance he wasn't the only one out here.  
With wide eyes, Takanosuke looked over towards the slightly older blader beside him that had reached out to keep him upright, his taut features having a cold look of concern upon them that the blonde could only ever recognize as... Well, Sakyo.  
"Sakyo..?" The shorter male questioned, his voice soft as he quickly recovered from the sudden episode that he had not expected to have right then and there.  
It was then that he became aware of the warm liquid protruding from his nose, just barely touching his lips to where he could lick it and taste the metallic flavor on his pink tongue.  
The Dragoon Blader next to him took his hands off of his chest and back as the blonde lifted his hand up and brushed it across the skin between his upper lip and nose. Pulling it away, the blonde was able to see the drops and smears of blood on his fingertips.  
"Here." Said Sakyo's rough voice that was as gentle as it could be just like yesterday when the older teenager had taken it upon himself to care for the temporarily ill boy.  
Confused for the moment at what Sakyo was talking about, Takanosuke turned to look towards the dual-haired blader beside him; the handkerchief being out held out to him was the first thing that caught his eye.  
Cerulean orbs stared at it for a moment before the blonde realized that Sakyo was the one that was holding it out to him.

"Use it." The taller male said simply when the Griffin Blader looked up at him in confusion and then back towards the cloth that he was holding out to him.  
"Uh, thanks.." Takanosuke said quietly, hesitantly taking the handkerchief from the older blader and using it to wipe the blood that had oozed down from his nose. Finding that his nose had decided to bleed than no further than it already had, Takanosuke gave the handkerchief back to the slightly elder blader that had given it to him.  
"Sorry about the blood..." The blonde said meekly, unsure if he should even apologize given Sakyo's hospitality.  
"Don't worry about it." The dual-haired teen said coldly but dismissively, sticking the piece of cloth back in his pocket before turning his red eyes back to his younger companion, "Are you alright?" Takanosuke put a hand on his head, rubbing it slightly as if to see if that ringing sound and dizziness would automatically come back.

"Yeah, I think so..." The Griffin Blader replied, "I don't know what that was about.." No response to that statement came from Sakyo other than the brief hum deep in his throat that only he himself was capable of hearing.  
"Let's go." The red-and-white-haired teen said gruffly, placing a hand behind the slightly younger male and almost touching his back as if to urge him along.  
"Uh, okay.." Takanosuke responded, following along beside the Dragoon Blader as they both continued on their way as if nothing had just happened. But the thought of what had just occurred with the younger of the two of them was in both their heads, and never left forgotten.  
With the few times Sakyo glanced back down at the blonde youth, he never did say a word from his quiet and stoic nature, the thought of the other's sudden 'episode' still bringing itself back into his mind even with the main objective they were both focusing on.  
Looking ahead, Sakyo would never admit - both when Takanosuke had collapsed in the heat the previous day, and a few minutes ago - that he had prayed for him...

* * *

 _Tap, tap, tap_

Kyoya nonchalantly tapped the point of the pen in his hand on the desk, gazing down at the paper in front of him with halfhearted dedication.  
Blue eyes scanned the page again to better understand the situation and what this specific paper had been brought to him for, but there really was no point - he had looked over the words on the several papers below his hand at least a dozen times now.  
Once he was done this, he would have to look over the few employee papers that were sitting diagonally across him on the hard wood desk that was neatly littered with other things.  
The Leone Blader partially couldn't really bring himself to fully care about the papers in front of him, but he knew that he had to go through and work on them, seeing as how it was going to settle things between his own corporation and the Moscow WBBA in Russia.  
So if he wanted things between them to actually be square - which of course he did, seeing as how stubborn they could be on certain subjects (not to say the least for several other WBBA corporations) - then working on his papers was the way to do that.  
But even with that enticing thought, it wasn't the most pressing matter in his mind at the moment.  
The conversation that he had had with Tsubasa just two days earlier was still lingering in his mind, pressing into his thoughts whenever they had the spare moment to.  
He shouldn't even bothering himself thinking about it, seeing as how he had far more important things to do around here than worry about whatever the silver-haired Director's little quarrels were, and that he himself had said that they would just wait and see whenever the Bridge To The Future tournament decided to start up again; for some reason, it just seemed to bother him.  
He had gotten the vibe that the Eagle Blader had been hiding something that very likely had to do with the postponing of the tournament, but what exactly it was was what was bothering him so much. Not only that, but the other had seemed... Off.. He himself didn't know Tsubasa that well, even if they were pretty good friends, but even he could tell when the calm, and collected man was a bit off his rocker.  
Sighing through his nose, Kyoya tapped the pen in his hand on the desk twice more before bringing it down to the paper below him, writing down a few things on a few solid lines that were there for writing space if anything had to be said, and laying down his signature on the dotted line at the bottom.

That done, the green-haired man moved that paper out of the way to look at the one underneath, which was relatively the same to the previous paper.  
The sound of the automatic doors sliding open off to the side of the room reached his ears, but the greenette paid next to no mind as he knew it was either his brother or one of the many personnel that worked in the building. As more expected, it was the former.

"Hey Kyoya." Kakeru greeted, walking over to his elder brother's work desk with his tablet tucked under his arm, "How's that paperwork coming? Moscow said they wanted it by the 14th, so I came to check." Grunting softly, Kyoya let one of his signature smirks cross his face, looking up towards his little brother narrowly.  
"Almost done." The Leone Blader responded, "Can't say its the number one thing on my mind, though." Kakeru raised an eyebrow in confusion, watching as his brother glanced back down towards the paper before him again and dotting a few things down nonchalantly onto the small writing space underneath the rest of the writing.  
It wasn't like Kyoya to simply share his thoughts and feelings with him so freely - Kakeru himself was usually the one who was better at doing that -, unless, of course, he was looking to get something out of it. But the younger Tategami knew that he did with genuine sincerity, so he didn't really mind all too much.  
"Why, what's up?" The right-hand assistant asked, shifting his tablet from under his arm into a more sturdy position.  
Kyoya tapped his pen several times against his desk just beside the paper he was working on, as though forgetting that his younger sibling was there at all and going back to focusing on his paperwork.  
However, the older Tategami set down the ink-filled device down onto the desk and intertwined his fingers together, placing them before his chin in an intrigued kind of posture.

"That little talk I had with Tsubasa is still on my mind.." Kyoya responded, his light blue eyes gleaming dangerously with that usual hint of deviousness, "I can't help but keep wondering what it is exactly he's not wanting to tell anyone about the tournament... Even if he does keep secrets, he's usually a bit better at hiding it, but he seemed off this time.." Kakeru listened intently to his brother's aloud thoughts, already knowing that his older sibling may indeed be plotting to dig into this a little further himself.  
"What are you going to do?" The younger Tategami asked anyway.  
"Well, there isn't really much I _can_ do..." Kyoya said with a bit of a troubled look, leaning back in his chair and half balancing his head on one hand, "It's not like the man himself is going to tell me anything, so I'll have to get answers from elsewhere..."  
Visibly thinking, Kyoya tapped his one index finger on the arm of his chair, thinking over the several options that he had of people to go to to figure out anything.

Madoka Amano, who he knew worked closely with Tsubasa from the many times that he had seen her with him, probably wouldn't be so willing to tell him anything, since she was probably in on the whole secret too. He knew she was a clever woman and he probably couldn't trick her into spilling anything even if he tried.  
Benkei was another option... But he wasn't sure about his standing in all of it.  
There was also Hikaru, who he knew was Tsubasa's assistant just as she had once been Ryo Hagane's - Gingka's father -, but he wasn't entirely sure how to get in contact with her... She probably wouldn't tell him anything either, considering her loyalty to the Director.  
The Legendary Blader hummed low in his throat, knowing full well that there were the other Legendary Bladers and those who had participated in creating the Beyblade Generation that he could easily contact, but also knowing that none of them likely knew anything about it.  
And as for Gingka... Well, none of them had ever really been able to keep good track of the hyper active and outgoing redhead, so whether or not the Pegasus Blader had been anywhere near Metal Bey City as of late to learn anything was not knowledge that he possessed.

"Kakeru." The greenette said suddenly as he gazed across his desk to the large screen TV on the opposite side of the wall.  
"Yes?" The younger Tategami brother responded at the call of his name, still looking at his older brother quizzically.  
"You have all contacts to the rest of the Legendary Bladers and everyone else that were in remote association and contact with." The CEO stated bluntly, of which Kakeru simply nodded too. Kyoya's gaze went over to his younger brother, that dangerous gleam of a devious nature that had gotten him through sandstorms and scorching deserts in his light blue eyes before he spot.  
"Contact Dynamis." The elder greenette ordered simply.  
Kakeru was surprise at this demand, and most of all confused of why he would want to contact the Jupiter Blader - which he had told him quite a bit about long after everything had been rebuilt and the Legendary Bladers had all gone their necessary separate ways - for answers on the situation.  
"Alright." The right-hand assistant responded obediently before holding his tablet up in front of him and sliding his fingers across it expertly. As he came to the desired page, tapping the screen a couple times with his fingers, Kakeru looked up towards his older brother.

"If you don't mind me asking, big brother..." The youngest Tategami brother began, glancing over towards the screen on the wall opposite Kyoya to see if it was responding - it was, "Why are you calling Dynamis to find out anything?"  
Kyoya smirked, his sharp canines showing slightly from under his upper lip. "Well, Dynamis and Tithi are both usually at the Mist Mountain Shrine." The Leone Blader explained, "They may be pretty isolated, but I know that they both know quite a few things. I also know that Tithi usually leaves for awhile before coming back, but I have no idea where it is he ever goes... The point is-" Kyoya's sharp blue eyes watched the screen across from him as it slowly worked to connect to whatever type of communication device that Dynamis may have at that temple of his, "-one of them could possibly know some thing about what's going on - not for sure, but possibly. Not saying that either of them are probably even in connection with anyone else, but I can take my chances.."  
Still holding his tablet in his arms, Kakeru nodded in reasonable understanding and turned towards the screen on the opposite wall, waiting patiently with his elder brother as the signal kept slowly trying to connect itself to the Mist Mountains Shrine.  
Seeing as how the temple was inside a mountain, entirely isolated from the rest of the world with thick walls made of hard stone and mountain rock, it was entirely logical for the connection to take a long time to tie itself down, if it managed to connect at all. But the two of them waited for several moments, and, before long, the connection finally got through to the Guardian of Mist Mountain with whatever he used for outside communication.  
Only the face that they were met with on the other side of the screen, that buzzed slightly at the edges in light static from the connection that they were able to get, was not that of Dynamis - it was Tithi. Kyoya's eyes widened slightly in surprise at seeing the other Legendary Blader, who had definitely matured and aged since the last time that he had seen him.

"Tithi?.." The elder greenette questioned, his brow furrowing slightly in confusion as why Tithi would answer - he shouldn't really be confused... Perhaps he had just called at one of the few times that the purplette had returned to the Mist Mountain Shrine, and he had been the closest to whatever they used to communicate to answer.  
"Kyoya?" Tithi questioned in response, his, now deeper, voice having the same confused tone that his own did.  
However, he seemed more surprised and nervous - nervous?... - than confused. Grunting softly, Kyoya let a smirk play on his lips a bit.  
"Well, looks like you've grown up since we last saw each other." The CEO commented loosely, "Didn't expect to see you after all this time.."

"Uh, yeah..." Tithi responded, clearing his throat a moment and swallowing as though from some form of anxiety, "Why are you calling the Mist Mountain Shrine, exactly?" Kyoya shrugged his shoulders slightly, tilting his head to the side a bit.  
"I just thought I'd give him a call.." The eldest greenette said simply, "I also have a few things that I want to ask him.." Kyoya raised one eyebrow, "I'm actually surprised that you were the one who answered.. Where is Dynamis, anyway?"  
Kyoya noticed the exact moment with the younger Legendary Blader tensed at the question. Blue eyes widened more than they had been, a hidden expression of... Sadness? Fear? Anxiety?... behind those eyes that told Kyoya merely one thing.

Something wasn't right.

Kyoya's own eyes narrowed, bringing his hands down from in front of his face and laying them on his desk as he straightened and untangled his features.  
Kakeru cast him a confused and worried glance, looking back and forth from his older brother to the Legendary Blader on the other side of the screen, automatically able to sense that something may be wrong.  
"Tithi..." The elder Tategami suddenly said, his voice serious yet solemn, "Where's Dynamis?.." With a forlorn expression on dark features, Tithi looked down, seemingly unsure of how to answer.  
Kyoya understood when Tithi finally spoke after a few moments of silence; how does one properly voice the truth when it's so agonizing?...

* * *

Kira leaned against the side of the building, tapping his finger out of bordeom against the corner of his elbow as he waited for the several others in their group of nine to come out of the small diner that he had directed them to for some breakfast before they left.  
Arms folded across his chest, and legs crossed at the ankles, the muticolor-haired boy had been out there no more than a few minutes, waiting patiently as the others had almost been finished their breakfast as well before they gotten up to pay.  
It was fairly early in the morning, perhaps about 8:00am or so.  
They had all planned to rise early so that they could leave the hotel and have a bit of time before it really got hot out.  
However, it was still quite warm out even with the fairly early hour of the morning, very few clouds making themselves known in the sky and allowing the rising sun to cast its early morning heat and shadows.  
Kira simply sighed through his nose, opening his one eye once he heard the sound of the door nearby opening to allow either exit or entrance. Glancing over, he saw that Zyro was there, along with Ren, Shinobu, Kite, and Eight - the other 3 were very likely still inside.  
"Hmph..." The Bahamoote blader grunted softly, "Took you all long enough..." His words came out in an apathetic sigh, making the 5 of them look towards them.  
"There was a line." Ren said simply, "People were slow.." Kira hummed softly with what seemed to be a role of the eye, but said nothing more.  
Standing outside, all 6 of them now waited for the other three - Madoka, Benkei, and Maru - to come out once they were finished paying for the small breakfast they had all had.

While most of them were pretty tired - Zyro included from the lack of sleep after he had had his very vivid dream - they all deemed it necessary to get up as early as they did.  
Granted it was still quite warm out, it was still cooler than it would be later in the day.  
As planned, they would all be heading down towards the Sainen-ji Temple, mainly under Kira's guidance of knowing where it was.  
Perhaps they would be able to learn more about this named temples dedicated to Nemesis from those priests that supposedly lived there.  
Hopefully they would be able to find out something from them that would help them with their task. Hopefully that one priest at the Sansho Shrine was right. The door to the small diner opened once more, allowing exit to Maru, Madoka, and Benkei as they finally finished paying for the breakfast that they had all had to last them a few hours.  
"Well, that's done." Madoka said with a small sigh, her turquoise eyes turning to look at the teenagers gathered on the sidewalk, "Are we ready to go?"

"As ready as ever." Ren said with a smile, while Shinobu, Eight, and Zyro simply gave nods and 'yes's in confirmation. Kira didn't say a word, but simply pushed his body away from the wall and uncrossed his limbs, standing upright with his arms hanging by his sides.  
Waiting for the other 8 of them to quickly get their bearings, Kira glanced over in the direction that he knew they had to go to get to the Sainen-ji Shrine, preferably taking the main road and sticking to it rather than the dense wilderness of the valley.  
The sun was peering over the buildings, casting fading shadows as it slowly crept further up into the sky with every passing hour, giving the valley light and waking people up to the newest day. Kira knew for a fact that they could get there well before mid-day ever came around, considering that it was practically just down the street.  
Sighing through his nose, the multicolor-haired blader looked over to the rest of the group, just in time to see that they had gotten everything together and were now heading out.  
"Alright, let's get going." Madoka said with an encouraging smile, adjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulders slightly, "You know the way, right?" This question was directed towards Kira, who looked up towards the brunette.  
Her expression was calm with a small smile on her face, which he could read fairly well enough to know that she was... Grateful, was it? Perhaps.  
The Bahamoote Blader simply looked at her for a moment with his only eye before closing it and looking away with a 'mm-hmm' for confirmation.  
"Well, alright." The blue-eyed shop owner said with a nod, and walked onward. Kira took to walking fairly beside her, seeing as how he was the one who mostly had to lead the way, even if the place wasn't that difficult to find.

They didn't know a thing about the area though, Kira reasoned, so whatever.

Without further delay, the 9 of them headed off again towards the main road that they had come in, mainly following Kira's guidance of where they were supposed to go in this valley since he ws the one that seemed to know the most about it - of course, only Zyro knew why from the explanation he had received.  
As they got to the main road, Kira vaguely advised that they stick by it throughout the whole way there, since the wilderness of the valley was definitely something he - nor the rest of them - really wanted to deal with. The sun slowly rose higher as they made their way through the city, the shadows cast by the buildings growing smaller and smaller in its wake.  
And as they walked, ever intent on getting to their destination and hopefully learning more about this temples to get further in their mission to find Alcorin, many others in the valley, such as themselves and Kira, did not fail to notice the slightly foggy haze that plagued the western sky...

"Alright, thanks." Tsubasa said in gratitude to one of the workers of the WBBA as they handed him several printed papers for him to look over, the silverette taking a moment to flip through the pages quickly before nodding and looking at the worker with the okay for him to leave.  
The brunette simply gave a polite nod and smile in return before walking off to file through the rest of the reports.  
Looking back to the papers in his hand, Tsubasa gave a small yawn before scanning his eyes over the first page, and then flipping it up to look at the page below it, taking a few slow and slightly absent steps in whichever direction he was facing.  
His dark-skinned lips moved silently as his golden eyes read through the papers he was given, standing at the edge of the workplace near one of the hallways as he did so.  
The personnel working on this floor paid him no mind as they continued on with their regular and given duties, but were more than acknowledging of his presence in the room, even if he was distracted by the papers in his hand.  
Only a handful of them had even noticed how weary the Director had been looking for the few days, eyeing the small bags under his eyes presumably caused by the late nights and lack of sleep that had been happening for the past few days.  
While most of them knew that the President of the WBBA did sometimes sleep at the office when it was too late to go home or if he had things to do early in the morning, it was concerning to think that the man had been doing so for the almost a full week now, entirely focused on his work and the personnel he had dispatched to cities all across the country.  
Those said few had all returned, the last couple - Shura and Yuki - had returned late last night from Sapporo.

However, he did seem to be getting enough sleep to refresh him and let him focus, so nobody really took to much worry in it to tell him to go home for the night. But even so, his behavior lately was more than questionable.  
Even yesterday, he had looked quite disoriented after awhile for whatever reason. But he had been quite focused and alert anyway, so nobody said anything. So now, they let him read over the paperwork in his hands quietly while they themselves did their respected jobs.  
Reading over the first few lines of the forth page of the papers in his hand, Tsubasa heard a small ringing sound that snapped him out of his focus on the papers.  
Immediately, he knew what it was, and reached in his pocket to pull out his cellphone, glancing at the screen quickly to see who was calling him. It was the headquarters, and he knew that it probably meant someone from the lower floors was calling him about something. Sliding his thumb across the screen, Tsubasa brought his phone up to his ear and answered.

"Hello?" He asked, waiting for a reply.  
"Hello, Director." Greeted a female voice from the opposite line, one of which he recognized fairly well in terms of the calls that he got concerning certain progress in the building and such, "You have a call waiting for you in your office, from Kyoya Tategami." Tsubasa's eyes widened at the sound of that name, the name of the green-haired CEO he had talked too not 2 days ago about the matters concerning the tournament.  
Kyoya had agreed with him that they wouldn't put a 2 year distance between phone calls, and that they should speak more often - whether about business or not - but he had not been expecting to receive a call from him only 2 days later. What could he want only 2 days after their last conversation.  
Well, there _was_ only one way to find out, he reasoned as he sighed through his nose lightly.  
"Alright." The Director said in response, "Send him through, I'll be there in a minute."

"Yes, Director." The woman on the other end of the line said obediently before hanging up. Tsubasa in turn put the cellphone back in his pocket, glancing at the papers in his hand that he still partially had to read through.  
He would have to look over them after he sorted out whatever it was that Kyoya wanted. Sighing, the silverette tucked the papers under his arm and walked away briskly to the location of the elevator. As he made his way up, glancing up at the numbers above the door to wait for it to reach the floor he was on, many different thoughts plagued Tsubasa's mind all at once.

What could Kyoya possibly want?

What was he calling for in the first place so soon after their last conversation?

What could it be about?

Of course, there was only one way he was going to find out, even if it would obstruct him from his work for a few minutes - at least, he hoped that was how long the conversation would be. Finally, the elevator hit the floor that his office was on, automatically opening their doors and allowing him entry to to hall.  
Tsubasa stepped out and marched briskly towards the direction of his office - if Tamako had done as he had ordered, than Kyoya would be up on the screen behind his desk waiting for him. The silver-haired Director sighed inwardly to himself as he walked towards the automatic doors that lead him into his large office space.  
As expected, Kyoya was up there on the screen as he had been 2 days prior, his arms crossed as he leaned back in his chair with an almost unreadable expression on his face.  
It looked to be a mixture of solemn contempt with a stern shadow to it... But why?

"Hi, Kyoya." The President of the WBBA greeted with the smallest tug of a smile at the corners of his lips, "I didn't expect you to be calling so soon after we last talked." Tsubasa neatly placed the papers he had formerly been reading on his desk, making his way around his desk and leaning back against it a bit so that he was facing the eldest Tategami on the other side of the screen, "Can I ask why?"  
Tsubasa's own gold eyes met with Kyoya's light blue ones, and almost immediately did the silverette know that there was something that the younger of the two of them wanted to talk about. For several moments, Kyoya simply continued to stare at him, and the longer he did the more Tsubasa felt his heart beat in his chest.  
What was it that Kyoya wanted to talk about in the first place?  
Surely it wasn't just to stare at him, right?...  
What was it?..  
It was only after several more moments did Kyoya finally decide to speak. With what sounded partially like a clearing of the throat, Kyoya closed his eyes and tilted his head forward slightly - a gesture that Tsubasa new was quite common with Kyoya.

"I'll keep it short." The greenette began, "Let's just say I've made a couple of phone calls around, and I've heard some pretty intriguing things... But I only have one question for you." Slowly, Kyoya opened his eyes and looked up to the Metal Bey Director, a look in his those frightening orbs that would only be compared to that of a lion.  
"Suggesting you already heard... What do you know about Dynamis's death."  
Tsubasa nearly felt his heart stop in his chest. His eyes widened, and his breathing hitched in a look of shock that was able to say more to Kyoya than words would ever be.

In that moment, both of them knew that Kyoya had him.


	21. Chapter 20 - Numb

Chapter 20 - Numb

* * *

If insanity had not already come to him through the endless darkness and torment, then Gingka was at a loss.  
If was not already crazy from seeing nothing but black, not already delusional from the everlasting silence that wouldn't even let him hear the infamous ringing that came with such painful nothing, than he wouldn't know what to think.  
He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, in a world of nothing but darkness that was impossible to see through, chained down harshly with invisible restraints that would never let him go no matter how much he struggled.  
Without the ticking of the former clock that had been the only thing he could rely on, he had no idea how long he had been here, how long he had been condemned to this torment that refused to leave him alone.

There was only the two of them - him and it.

And always it would leave him sitting there on his knees, pinned down in the abyss with no escape and no solution but to sit there limply, and wait.  
Wait for it to come back and once more resume the touching, whispering... However long it was ever gone for, he could never know. How many times he had heard it crawling up behind him, felt it touch him with skin that made him want to scream from the sheer intensity that was almost painful, Gingka would never know. And that alone was enough to drive him crazy, if it was possible for him to lose his mind in this place of vast and empty darkness.  
It could have been days, hours, years... Gingka would never know, because he had nothing that he could cling too.  
Nothing to hold onto in the eternal silence, nothing to see but for the blurs that filled his eyes when he closed them, nothing to keep him sane... And then when he would least expect it, when he would be staring forward into nothingness or down into his lap, it would come back... And it would speak to him, break him, claw the remains of the unseen wings on his back, and give him the only source of touch - of _feeling_ \- that he could possibly get in his damned place.

And despite being the only thing that he could really feel in this accursed abyss, he hated everything about it...

It tormented him, touched him, whispered to him, set every nerve in his body aflame from the intensity of pressure that pulsated from skin as smooth as glass and as white as snow. He never wanted to come back, always praying silently that it would disappear, leave him alone, _anything_...  
But it never did, and he knew that it was hopeless.  
Even now, as he stared down at the edges of his knees, looking down to where he knelt on a floor that may have not even been there, he was condemned to sit there and wait for it to come back... And even though it was entirely futile, entirely pointless no matter how hard he tried, Gingka prayed to whatever god may be listening that it wouldn't.  
His breath was soundless in this place, heard barely by his own ears as he breathed out in an a slightly uneven pattern, the fear and anxiety of the unknown keeping his body constantly tense - even so, he himself wasn't entirely able to feel the tension in his own body, barely able to feel himself breathing in and out unevenly.  
All he was left with was nothing; nothing to feel; nothing to hear; nothing to see but himself in a world that was just... Nothing.

Slowly, hearing the chains dragging along with his movements, the redhead brought his arms up slowly. Both of his hands touched his forearms, even though there wasn't that much sensation to go along with it - all of his nerves may as well be dead by now from the sheer intensity of burning pressure that seeped into his skin whenever it touched him.  
But even so, it was a relief to even feel the slightest bit of touch - of actual skin-to-skin contact - that didn't burn into his nerves endlessly.  
Slowly, he inched his fingertips up to his elbows, letting the palms of his gloved hands lay against his forearms.  
Gingka let out a shaky breath, hearing the unseen chains that bound his wrists shifting with their metallic clanging - or maybe there were no chains, and he was just hearing things from the insanity he had been drive into far too long ago... Or maybe not... Gingka chose not to care as he savored the small bit of sensation that he got from touching his own skin, and not having some other entity touching him and igniting all of his sense of feeling in a burning ache.

In this place, wherever the hell it was, there was only him, and it...

Whatever _it_ really was..

Still did he breath unevenly, his breaths quiet through his nose as he knelt there, silently hugging himself with little feeling to cling too.  
In the everlasting darkness, in a silence so deep that it could drive anybody insane within hours, this was all he had; rubbing his hands up and down his forearms for some need of sensation, to feel something at least somewhat familiar that wasn't those accursed hands colored white.  
He just needed to feel something, even though it was faint. But from the nerves under his skin having been numbed from pressure they weren't likely supposed to feel, it wasn't a enough.  
He could hear the chains clinking as he rubbed his forearms, even if it was just his imagination, the sound unsettling yet ringing in his ears as some of the only bit of sound there was in this darkness.  
His golden-brown eyes continued to stare down at the edges of the knees, the darkness below and around and above making the color of his jeans seem brighter in contrast to everything though he shouldn't be able to see even himself in darkness so thick... But all he did was sit there and stare blankly as though in a trance, still rubbing his arms to at least try and gain more feeling than he was getting.

It just didn't seem to be enough, it all felt numb...

It was all far too numb...

Gingka narrowed his eyes, a look of discomfort on his face at this realization, but he kept rubbing his forearms, his fingertips seeming to put more pressure down the longer it continued, just wanting to feel something than this dull sensation caused by the damned intensity of that thing's touch.  
Maybe this was his breaking point... Realizing that there _was_ nothing to be felt other than dull sensation and intense pressure.  
But that couldn't just be it... It couldn't... He was trapped here, had been for what felt like an eternity, feeling nothing by that burning sensation beneath the skin that wasn't quite painful as it was overwhelming.  
That couldn't just be all he was left to feel, stuck here and chained down with something else that made it clear it was far more superior than he was.  
Gingka hardly noticed when his nails starting grazing against the skin of his arms, creating an ever faint stinging sensation that still didn't offer him any comfort...

 _Let me feel something..._

He was hardly able to notice as his nails continued scratching against the skin of his forearms, leaving the long abrasions of irritation that came with it - but he wasn't able to feel the burn of it..  
It was a bad idea to continue with the scratching and the dull aches, but he just needed to feel _something_... Something that was more just this faint feeling, and something that was far less than an overwhelming pressure pulsating through his skin.  
Gingka closed his eyes tightly, that image appearing before his blocked eyesight again. It was still blurry, he could barely see anything, but he could make out the shapes. There was no comfort there, because he knew very well what he was staring at, even if it was disoriented figures from unfocused eyesight.  
The redhead shook his head slightly, opening his eyes again to the world of darkness that he was forever condemned to, hearing the chains around his wrists shake and rattle as he continued scratching at his forearms, the skin where he had repeatedly dragged his nails across beginning to wear down threaten to break if pressured anymore.  
But Gingka found himself barely able to care, as it was barely anything for him to feel from the way his nerves and brain refused to register anything more than what he was already feeling - just faint contact, muted aches of what he should normally be feeling.  
It just wasn't enough... Gingka was barely able to feel it as his nails scratched harder against the skin of his forearms, the still wearing down and thinning and threatening to break to allow the blood to start seeping through...

But didn't happen as something reached around and grabbed both of his wrists, the texture, of whatever it may be, as smooth as glass and immediately sending waves of intensity into his skin wherever it touched.  
Both of his hands were pulled apart, one being forced down to his side and the other being brought back beside his head, the shock of the sudden pressure coursing through whatever part of his skin it was touching leaving him frozen and wide-eyed. He had not been paying attention to hear the soft rustling that indicated it was coming back, he had not been caring about it seconds before because it had foolishly become the last thing on his mind...  
The only thing that came from behind him was the feeling of it pressing up against his back, and then chuckling softly.

 **"Now, now..."** It said calmly, a hint of amusement dancing in its voice as he felt it bring its mouth up beside his ear, **"We don't want you hurting yourself, now do we?..."** Gingka breathed shakily through his nose, feeling the tears brim on the edges of his eyelashes from the fear and overwhelming sensation, but unwillingly to let them fall.  
Another soft chuckle sounded from just beside his ear before he felt it pull his arm back slightly more, its breath moving away from his ear.  
The redhead automatically froze when he felt that familiar feeling of something wet and slick against his skin, starting at the bottom and going up one of the several abrasions he had created on his forearm - almost as if to make it all better, despite the pressure that pulsated through his arm all the same.  
Gingka didn't dare make a sound, but stared out into the darkness that was the only other thing he could see, trying not to let the tears slid down his cheeks but failing miserably...

* * *

From the way things had been going, none of them had expected things to really go downhill as fast as they had.  
For Zyro and the others, things had actually been going pretty smoothly in their search for wherever that deranged sociopath could be, getting their clues and following the road to wherever they believed they would be able to gather any information.  
Naively, they had believed that this time would simply be the same. Heading down the main road had gone alright in the early morning, the sun rising higher in the sky as time passed and brought them closer to their destination.  
They really didn't need to rely on Kira for directions, but he had at least been of some in finding their way; everything had actually been going pretty okay before they saw the sirens. Most of them had been confused as to why there were police cars and firetrucks in the area around the Sainen-ji temple, confused upon the crowd of bystanders and onlookers that had gathered around, confused by the news crew that was up somewhere near the front of the crowd.

But all questions were soon answered when they saw the scene for themselves and heard the words of the news reporter from the back - the Sainen-ji temple had collapsed, and from the sounds of it there were no known survivors.

To say the least, it wasn't what any of them had been expecting. Dust still rose into the air from the rubble, thin columns of smoke floating up into the air from the few fires that had been created in the collapse, clouding the sky above with a smoky haze.  
As obviously stated, everyone in the temple at the time was now dead - and the 9 of them were left without hope for more answers.  
Even with the shock and the sudden realization that they now had nothing to go on, nobody really said anything. Madoka and Maru had sat down near the side of the road, both of them staring rather blankly towards the scene that dozens upon dozens of onlookers were staring at.  
Kira was leaning against a nearby telephone pole, looking rather indifferent towards the whole situation - of course, he wasn't really the one who cared all that much about what happened, as it didn't break him up as much to see that their only available source of information was now gone and destroyed in some freak accident. The others were either sitting down or standing, other than Benkei, who had sat down near the side of the ride beside Madoka and Maru, there to assure them and himself that it and they were alright.  
All was silent but for the constant passing of cars, concerned bickering, and the words being spoken by the female news reporter near the front of the crowd. For what seemed like forever, none of them said a thing - a few of them, like Zyro, Madoka, and Maru, stared either absently forward or at the ground.  
Ren picked silently at her nails to keep herself occupied, Eight shifted from one foot to the other constantly while staying at his older brother's side, Shinobu played with the purple necklace strung around his neck in absent worry and concern for the situation.  
Zyro sat there silently, forlorn blue eyes staring absently towards the sight of destruction, as did Maru and Madoka, although the young mechanic took her lavender eyes away to look down at her scarring knees.

Kira, though gazing towards the ruined temple in solemn silence, glanced over towards them all a few times with the shadow of a scowl on his face. Sure, they were upset, he could get that (not truly, since he felt relatively nothing towards this other than the surprise that the old building had actually come down upon itself), but was there really a reason to just sit there in silence and stare at it?

Obviously not.

But here they were, just sitting there in shocked and broken silence that honestly disgusted silence.  
 _"And just when I get the kid to stop sulking over everything..."_ He thought to himself with an inner, irritated sigh. Even with the disgust at their sulking behavior, the multicolor-haired blader said anything.  
He allowed them all to just stare at the large pile of rubble that had once been their destination, that had formally been their one source of hope for learning anything, to hopefully getting closer to the ruthless demi-god that they were chasing after.  
Now it was gone, and, though there had been the shock and the small bit of panicking and denial at the first discovery of this, they all just continued to sit there and stare; nobody bothered to break the tension.  
Already, it was nearly mid-day, which meant that they had all been standing and sitting here for a couple hours, at least. Shaking his head, Kira simply turned his one-eyed gaze back towards the scene of ruin, arms and legs crossed as they had been earlier that morning before they had left Kasama.  
It took at least ten or fifteen more moments of silence before anyone said anything - and that, surprisingly enough, was Zyro.  
Ren was the one to notice and glance over at the ginger-ravenette as he slowly shook his head, his eyes distant yet still questioning from what she could see.

Voice barely above a whisper, yet still somehow loud enough for all of them him, Zyro spoke, "This can't be a coincidence.."

Most eyes turned towards him, and Kira even raised an eyebrow at him with a solemn expression, somewhat impressed (and graciously relieved) that the emotionally damaged had actually decided to speak up.  
"What?" Shinobu questioned, staring towards Zyro with slightly wider eyes than usual, confusion at what exactly the Fire Blader had said and was saying. In response, Zyro turned to his head to look back towards most of them as most eyes turned towards him.  
"I said it can't be a coincidence that this place collapsed." The Iraid blader said more clearly.  
"Not a coincidence?..." Eight questioned quietly, trying to work over this thought in his own mind.  
"Yeah." The dual-haired blader continued, "I thought over it a bit... There's no way this place could just fall apart overnight after we figured out that we were supposed to come here, right?"

"Well, things still 'just happen', right?" Maru questioned, taking the other result of this situation into consideration.  
"Not with _that_ psychopath, they don't." Ren replied with a scowl that went towards nobody.  
Kite, glasses reflecting the light of the sun, brought his hand up to his chin in thought. "It does make a bit of sense, though..." The teen-aged scientist said thoughtfully, "Considering the situation, there had to have been a way that Alcorin found out about us planning to come here... And considering all that he can do, the probability that he's able to watch us pretty high... And most importantly, if he actually did bring down the temple, than that likely means he really doesn't want us to find him."

"Which gives us all the more reason to keep trying, right?" Benkei suggested, standing up from his seat beside both Maru and Madoka.  
"Yeah, but what are we gonna do now?" Ren questioned, "We don't really have any other place to look for answers..."  
Madoka hummed briefly, looking down towards her feet with a troubled look on her face as she thought to herself. "I don't know..." The blue-eyed shop owner said with a sigh tracing her words, "I don't know exactly where else we _could_ go.."

"I'll look!" Maru announced with a small smile, lifting her wrist up and bringing up the holographic screen that protruded from the silver bracelet on her arm, swiping her fingers just above the screen in her usual way of connecting with it.  
In the meanwhile, Ren brought a finger up to her chin and tapped it there, staring absently towards the dry grass she was sitting on with thought. "I didn't think Alcorin would actually be watching us this whole time.." The blonde said with a slightly troubled expression, "That just means he could be anywhere, right now..."

"Yeah, but how?" Shinobu questioned, having finally ceased in playing with the necklace strung around his neck, "Last time, he obviously did it with cameras, so..." The light-haired blader's words trailed off, and his red-clothed shoulders gave a light shrug.

None of them were entirely sure what to make of it, with the fact that - considering he had likely brought the temple down with those freakish powers he had - Alcorin had very likely been watching them the entire time somehow.  
There wasn't really a way that he could actually do that, was there? Sure, he had those powers that he inherited from his father, but even so... How could have known where they were the entire time every step of the way?  
If he was able to watch them, know where they were going next, know what exactly they were discovering along their way, then he was still one step ahead of them.  
And he could, therefore, be anywhere.

"Here we go!" Maru exclaimed, gaining the attention of the other 8, "The nearest place is Iwase, with is down the road to the West... And then there's Sakuragawa, which is over the mountains." The pink-haired mechanic one small finger towards the mountains over in the not-so-far-off distance.  
Madoka leaned over a bit to get a better look at the screen Maru was holding up, a few strands of her brown hair brushing against the top of the young girl's head.  
"Well, neither of those places are exactly close..." The blue-eyed woman speculated, "But we might as well give them a shot to see if we can find anything..." A small chuckle escaped Kira's throat.

"Wow, you all actually _can_ think of things when you want too.." The multicolor-haired blader said with a small smirk playing at the edges of his purple lips.  
Nobody really paid him any mind other than a slightly sour look from Shinobu - which was to be expected between the two of them - and a slight roll of the eyes from Ren. Even with his remark, Kira would only ever partially admit to himself that he was actually impressed - mainly because Zyro had been the one to speak first in context to the whole situation.  
"Well, Iwase looks closer.." Benkei said as he peered over Maru's shoulder, pointing at the location on the map that stated the name of the town that seemed to be similar to size to Kasama.  
"Yeah, I guess." Madoka said thoughtfully, her eyes scanning the screen intently as she thought over in her mind their next plan of action, "We might as well head in that direction. We don't really have anywhere else we could go for answers..." After these words, the brunette stood up and briefly stretched before looking towards the younger bladers, "Any of you up for walking?"

"No, but I'll do it." Ren said with a shrug and got up off the ground, an action followed by Zyro. Kira, knowing full well where they were headed and that they were leaving, pushed his body away from the telephone pull he had previously been leaning against to stand upright, one of his hands placed on his hips as he watched the rest of them gather their bearings.  
As they got themselves together and slung the very few bags they brought over their shoulders, nobody in the crowd in front of them noticed.  
Nobody paid any attention to the 9 at the back as they stretched and then headed off down the road, their pace slow with walking but determined nonetheless.  
Everyone else's attention was focused on the ruins of what had once been the Sainen-ji temple, the shock and confusion still evident throughout the crowd at this unforeseen event - all except for one.

A woman, who had been there for a fair amount of time, was the only one that took notice to the departure of the few people at the back, her head turning to look back over her shoulder and watching briefly as they walked away with red eyes that were hidden by sunglasses...

* * *

Booted footsteps echoed throughout the hallow, stone corridors, their movement brisk yet still with that calm and serene feature that always seemed to be there.  
The hem of white robe dragged lightly on the ground behind the albino and doing very little to weigh him down. A solemn look made itself known on the sociopath's face, red eyes gazing through the darkness and glowing in a feline-like aspect.  
Though seeing the light and actually being on the outside of this domain was refreshing, he liked it here all the more.  
He had been so dearly close to those who were chasing after him, and he had previously been able to feel the slight rush of adrenaline it caused from how close they were... He could have finished them off right there if he had dearly wanted to, but now that that temple was gone and they had no where to find any information on where he could be, he had no need too.  
Still... Seeing their broken faces had been a lovely sight, even if the way they had picked up not to long after made him scowl.  
But even so, he had not simply been there, disguised as an ordinary woman simply concerned as to what had occurred, to watch the hope flee from their delicate souls...  
He, too, had been curious on the temple's destruction.

For it had not been him who had done so.

He had not been present at the apparent time of collapse and destruction to do so, and it definitely could not have just happened by chance.  
Alcorin, for one, did not believe in coincidences or luck, and it was more than unlikely that some higher god than that of himself and what his father had been had decided to sympathize with him - that was enough to make him laugh.  
Yet for whatever reason the Sainen-ji temple had come down, it had aided him all the more in keeping those damned pests away from his brother and himself, so why even bother caring as to why such a thing had happened?  
Still, the thought danced around in his head as he made his way through the darkness, the stench and aura of inhuman power - that mainly came from him in this form that made him far more complete than before - strong and yet unable to bother him, hollow footsteps echoing endlessly throughout the silence and emptiness.  
It really was such a peculiar thing to have happened, now wasn't it?...

Finally, after winding his way through the maze of stone rooms and halls that he had come to memorize in his constant walking and pacing of thought, the albino came once more to the set of stairs that lead up into the hall where his dearest brother lay unmoving.  
As he always had... And yet something felt slightly off this time, for whatever reason.  
However, the sociopathic albino chose to ignore it despite the feeling of heaviness it cast on the room from this far away, making his way up the stairs like he had dozens of times before in his visits to his brother.  
Robes dragging behind him lightly on the stairs, other thoughts still clouding his head in confusion and curiosity, Alcorin ascended once more into the room that contained the almost lifeless body of his brother.

And when he came to the top of the stairs, he felt it.

It came at him all at once, and nearly sent up stumbling back if he hadn't had his feet planted squarely on the stone floor.  
He recognized this feeling, even though it almost felt entirely stranger to him - but he knew it, and it filled him with some sort of sickening joy all the more.  
A very audible giggle escaped his lips, sounding like something that, at one time, could've been so sweet yet now was nothing short of malicious and terrifying. The aura that took over most of the room was almost overwhelming, stretching out as far as it could as if for some hope to touching something other than stone walls and pillars.  
It was weak, yes, but compelling all the same; Alcorin couldn't help but laugh as he took a few more steps into the vast hall.  
The thoughts of what had happened to the Sainen-ji Temple, the confusion that had flooded his head from such a strange occurrence, the sight of Zyro Kurogane and his other little friends being so broken and hopeless, all faded away as he stood there.  
Because in one moment alone, he had the answers that no one else could get.  
Staring with glowing red eyes across the room to the opposite of where he stood, his the sound of his haunting giggles still clinging to edge of his voice, Alcorin gazed upon the exterior of his dear brother, which was already beginning to fade... Just like it had with he himself.

"So I see..." Alcorin said clearly while something between a smirk and smile played on his lips, "Getting into a bit of mischief, are we, dear brother?"

As always, there was no response. But Alcorin knew that at least one of them was listening...

* * *

The cameras turned to static, the tiny microphones hidden between the small cracks and crevices of his room turned up to the highest pitch, the lights shut off and flooding the space in darkness, he continued to watch everything.  
While he watched everything else, he assured that they could never watch him, and they had never thought anything about it.  
He knew they didn't, because they had never questioned it.

Of course, why would they, when he was in this condition of immobility from his irreversible weakness?

After all, there was no way they could stop him from doing so anyway - he practically controlled everything, and every time he shut the lights off, and cut off the surveillance systems so cleverly placed throughout his room, there were no hopes of turning them back on until he allowed it.  
A soft breath escaped from his lips, making him sound thoroughly exhausted even though he had not moved an inch, his blue eyes gazing at the screen in front of him in silent observance.  
The light from it shone on the sickly tone of his skin, his shoulders rising and falling with his breathing in an uneasy rhythm that he wasn't able to help.  
But despite his difficult breathing and chronic drowsiness that he always ignored, he continued to watch the holographic screen projected without a source in front of him, his eyes staring almost blankly at the contents it showed him through his own will.  
His blue eyes, half-lidded with barely enough strength to keep them fully opened all the time, moved only the slightest bit whenever his vision shifted upon the screen.

In this darkness, where no one else was able to see or hear him, where they had never questioned the repeated processing of him shutting everything off, he was able to watch them all.  
He saw everything, when he most wanted to. And as always, he would observe constantly as it all played out.  
For he had only one other thing that was worth living for, and that was to assure that they didn't get to _him_... Even before he had ever agreed to help when asked no more than 2 months, all he had wanted to do was protect him...  
If he couldn't protect one of them, then at least he could try and keep them from the other.  
Another tired breath escaped his mouth, his breathing deep with great exhaustion that would seem unreasonable upon first glance, blue eyes - now having dulled from their color in the gradual process of reverting back to their original form - gazing tired at the screen before him. Watching every movement, hearing every word, seeing every other thing that went on.

Unusually long hair poured down over the sides off the chair that he was always found in, his bangs doing little to obstruct his sight as he gazed at the projected screen with half-lidded eyes. In the silence that flooded the living space which had forever been his room, he heard the footsteps approaching from down the hallway.  
Almost immediately, the lights turned back on, the screen disappeared, the cameras were reverted back from static, and the microphones were turned down.  
Then he sat there, tired and weak, waiting for the inevitable sound and sight of the door to his room sliding open, where he would be greeted by a face that he could not stand anymore, unlike when he had been far younger. But it didn't matter... Because nothing else mattered to him than assuring that they never found that of which they lost all too long ago.


	22. Chapter 21 - Fail To Understand

Chapter 21 - Fail To Understand

* * *

Tsubasa had always been a pretty reasonable person, whether inside or outside of his work.  
He could see the reasonable outcomes in bad situations, and see the reasonable bad consequence of something good.  
Of course, even with his reasonable thinking, it didn't stop him from breaking that pattern and having a bit of hope that things would out better - that was how it had been during the Nemesis Crisis, when everything seemed to be at a loss before Gingka had managed to pull everyone together to defeat the deceased god.  
But this time, cornered by Kyoya with no way to escape, and no excuse good enough that could wave an undeniable truth like that off, Tsubasa knew that there was no way he could hide the truth from the Leone Blader. And now, Kyoya knew everything, because the only resort Tsubasa had had was to reveal everything that had occurred in the last few weeks to the Legendary Blader.  
Kyoya was shocked, to say the least.  
Tsubasa had expected him to be, from the lengthy explanation that he had given the CEO about Gingka falling into a coma, about Alcorin, about all that had happened in the span of a week, how Dynamis's death fit into it all (as that had been the key element that the green-haired man had come to him about), and the deaths of both Hikaru and Gingka of which they had not been able to predict.

Throughout the entirety of the explanation he had been given, Kyoya had interrupted few times and listened in almost disbelieving silence.  
Tsubasa, while his mouth had been moving, had watched his old friend as he explained everything, a sense of dread planting itself in the pit of his stomach from the simple fact and thought that _he was telling him all of this_.  
Yet despite thee dreaded feeling that he had, the silverette could feel a slight weight being lifted off of his shoulders, because he was actually telling someone. It wasn't just something that you could tell anyone, even from the psychological damage that most of them had been through - a therapist may as well sign any of them off as crazy and send them straight to the psychiatric ward.  
Even despite the events of 7 years ago, nobody would just believe them right off the bat - unless, of course, they had endured the whole ordeal with Nemesis for themselves, as Kyoya knowingly had. When all had finally been said and done, both Directors stood and sat there in silence.  
Kyoya had one hand brought up his mouth as though it thought (Tsubasa wouldn't doubt that he was thinking it all over), his light blue eyes gazing absently forward somewhere near the bottom of the screen as he thought over every aspect of what exactly Tsubasa had just explained to him.  
The silverette himself had taken to sitting in his chair awhile ago, turned a bit to the side with one of his arms lain out on the edge of his desk, awaiting Kyoya's final reaction from all of this. Now that he had gone through everything, reflected on all that had happened in the last few weeks, he realized just how tired he actually was.  
All that was really keeping him awake and at least somewhat alert at this point was all the caffeinated coffee he'd been drinking, which didn't exactly do much to aid 5 hours of sleep - if he was even getting that.  
But the gold-eyed Director shoved the thought aside as the man on the other side of the screen finally spoke.

"Goddammit..." Kyoya cursed irritably, taking his hand away from his mouth and placing both limbs on his desk, a look of frustrated confusion and irritation on his face, his lion-like eyes making their way up to Tsubasa's face, "Why the hell didn't you tell me this sooner, Tsubasa? Hell- why didn't you tell _anyone_ about this sooner?!"

"You think anyone would've believed it?" The silverette retorted in protest, "Even if I told one of our friends who went through the Nemesis Crisis, do you think it would've made anything better? Besides, you know what happened to Dynamis once he got involved.."  
Kyoya snorted softly, leaning back in his chair, his long green hair pouring loosely over his shoulders. "Yeah, and I also saw how Tithi was doing." Said the Leone Blader in response, "Kid's grown up, but he's obviously not taking well to how Dynamis ended up..."  
There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them before Kyoya spoke once again, his face and voice seeming to have calmed down a bit, and he sighed heavily.

"I always knew that idiot would get himself killed one day..." Kyoya said, his voice almost thoughtful as he went back through the memories of his rival that he had still never beaten after 8 years.  
Tsubasa allowed a small yet sad smile to come to his lips at that statement.  
"I'm pretty sure we all knew he would somehow from how reckless he was..." The silver-haired man said with the small remnants of a hallow laugh in his voice, "I just didn't actually think it would happen like this.."

"Who would?" Kyoya questioned, "No one exactly expects the kid of Nemesis to suddenly show up with vengeance towards you." From the green-haired Director's tone of voice, it sounded he was still finding all of it hard to believe.  
Tsubasa didn't blame him - finding out about Gingka's death from Zyro had been something that none of them had wanted to believe at first. Kyoya opened his eyes after closing them briefly, a thoughtful look on his sharp features as he appeared to once more be thinking over something.  
"Just how the hell did this all happen?" The oldest Tategami asked, "And where exactly are Madoka and all of them after this?" Tsubasa sighed through his nose - he knew he was probably going to have to explain this as well.  
"They're... Not here." The gold-eyed CEO said reluctantly, "They went after him.."

"They _went after him_?" Kyoya repeated in disbelief - for him, this day had just been full of surprises, "Why the hell would they do that when you all know who and what he is?" Tsubasa sighed and shook his head slight, resting one of his arms on that of the chair and propping his head up with his hand.  
"Zyro was determined too go after him." The President of the WBBA responded tiredly, "So everyone else decided to as well. They haven't run into any trouble, as far as I know, but they seem to be at least getting somewhere..." Kyoya simply shook his head, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in his office chair.  
"Revenge, huh?..." The greenette said bitterly, "..I guess I don't really blame any of you, after what you've said that he did.."  
At this statement, Tsubasa shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure what all of their motives are for going after him, but I know Zyro's is not for revenge..." The silverette said, his golden gaze downwards a bit before looking back up, "He just doesn't want any more people getting hurt." Kyoya opened his eyes from having previously closed them, staring at the other CEO for a moment before chuckling softly.  
"Well, whatever you say." Kyoya said with a small smirk, "But still... After all you said this guy's done, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them do want to get back at him."

"I know..." Tsubasa said with a sigh, taking to sitting up properly in his chair, "I've been trying to help find anything that could lead them to him, but so far I haven't been able to find to much of everything. At this point, there isn't to much that I can do." Kyoya grunted slightly, as though trying to stifle an amused laugh.  
"Well, I guess you can't really find much of anything on someone who isn't even human..." The green-haired man said with a small bit of amusement, falling silent for a few moments before speaking again, "I may not know much of anything about what all of you have been doing these past few weeks, but I guess I can try and see what I can dig up."  
Tsubasa's eyes widened, the golden orbs immediately going to the screen in front of him in shock at this sudden offer. "You're..." He began, "..Going to help?... Are you even sure that's a good idea, Kyoya? Dynamis tried to help us once, and look where that got him." Kyoya simply rolled his eyes at the reminder, knowing full well about what had happened to the Guardian, even if no one was completely sure what happened there.  
"Yeah, well that was Dynamis." The blue-eyed Director said rather dismissively, "He didn't expect to get killed while helping out, so at least I'll know what it is I'm in for. Besides..." A serious look took to Kyoya's scarred face, frightening blue eyes gazing into the screen and seeming to hold the other man in a type of eye-lock, "Might as well make it up to Hagane about not settling our score." Tsubasa couldn't help but smile at that.  
"Whatever you say." He said calmly, opening his eyes after closing him and looking to the Leone Blader on the other side of the screen, "Just be careful. You never know who might be keeping an eye on you." Kyoya seemed to stifle a laugh, before simply nodding.

"Sure." He said in agreement, the deal between them seeming to settle, "And get some sleep, you look terrible." Before he had time to answer, the connection cut out and Kyoya was gone, ending their long-distance conversation on a single note.  
Whether that note would ever be continued or not, Tsubasa had no idea, taking into consideration what exactly Alcorin was capable of and what had happened to the last friend that had tried to help them out in any way possible.  
Tsubasa sighed through his nose - the only thing he could do now was wait and see if Kyoya would ever get back to him with anything. The silverette knew that the Leone Blader could handle himself, which was most certain from the way he had tamed the tornadoes that made up all of his power, which was able to give him at least a small form of comfort, but it wasn't enough.  
Kyoya was devious, clever, and most certainly powerful in the power given to him by the star fragment, but Alcorin was basically a god, even if in the shape of a human.  
Whatever the next move from here was, from any of them, all Tsubasa was able to do was wait and see...

* * *

It was around mid-day, and Takanosuke would be lying if he said he wasn't tired. It had been a long walk during the night, and although he was still pretty alert and able to focus, the journey from Ibaraki to Omitama had worn him out.  
Whatever had happened earlier in the morning with his head definitely hadn't helped either. Sakyo seemed to be keeping a careful on him, from the frequent glances that would direct themselves towards him every now and then, even more than Sakyo ever really did look at him - at this, the blonde assured the slightly elder blader that he was fine.  
Sakyo had accepted that, but it didn't stop him from glancing at him every once in awhile.  
Even now, as both of them sat in Omitama's small library, skimming through some books that sounded like they could be any sort of help, Takanosuke did all he could to ward off the need for sleep for just a little bit longer.  
He at least wanted to help as much as he could, since he had been the one to suggest that they go after Alcorin at all - and so far, all he had done was follow Sakyo and get weird headaches that couldn't possibly be from heat stroke.  
So the blonde sat there, looking absently down the page of the book that was open in front of him that had sounded at least half helpful, warding off sleep with whatever willpower he could manage when he found that his focus was wandering.  
He was only barely managed to actually focus on the page, but he was at least get parts of it, which didn't seem to be all helpful in... Whatever it was they were actually looking for to find this guy.

How exactly did one take to finding someone that wasn't even human, anyway?

Somewhere near him, Sakyo leaned against the bookshelf that they had gotten a couple of the books around them from, holding the volume that he had in one hand while flipping the pages with the other. Every now and then, Takanosuke could feel that haunting feeling of someone staring at him, even if only briefly, and he knew very well that it was Sakyo.  
The red-and-white-haired blader hadn't said anything, as he most commonly wouldn't, but he could see very well that the young blonde was getting tired.  
However, unless the Griffin Blader actually admitted or said that he was too tired to keep sitting there, or simply fell asleep on the book that his forehead was almost touching, he wouldn't try to force him to head back to the hotel they had found nearby earlier in the morning so he could rest.  
So, instead, he just stood there, leaning against the end of the bookshelf and skimming over the pages in the books, keeping one eye out for anything that could possibly seem helpful to them, and the other on the tired blonde that he was greatly worried about from earlier's little 'episode'. For however long they were at the library, neither of them really kept track of, whether it be minutes or hours.  
Takanosuke still refused his consciousness the bliss of sleep, tiredly turning the page of the book again that he could barely remember half of. His head hurt a bit, that was probably just from how tired he was, and very likely amplified by the crazy headache that he gotten earlier in the morning.  
Sighing heavily, the cerulean-eyed boy propped his head up with one of his hands while balancing his elbow on the table, keeping his blue orbs on the page that he was finding harder to focus on as time went on.  
Maybe he should just head back to the hotel and get some rest... It's not like it would be unreasonable, seeing as how the two of them had been walking all night. Before he was able to make up his mind through his drowsy haze, he heard footsteps from somewhere behind him, and saw the empty chair beside him being pulled back before someone sat down in it - it was Sakyo, he realized after a few moments.  
The older blader soundlessly placed the book he had supposedly been reading down on the table in front of him, his hand placed on the cover as he looked towards the blonde.

"Are you tired?" Sakyo asked bluntly, looking at the Griffin Blader with that normally cold look in his eyes that seemed to just barely allow a bit of concern to caress them.  
"A bit." The Griffin said tiredly, but shook his head and propped it back up on his hand again after taking it off, "I'm okay though."  
Sakyo clearly wasn't convinced, and Takanosuke knew that it took more than that to convince the Dragoon Blader of anything. "I can handle things from here." The dual-haired blader said gruffly, "You should go and rest back at the hotel, you're tired." Obviously he was tired, anyone could see that. But from being around the older blader for so long, the blonde knew that he was saying that he was more tired than he was letting on - which he definitely was.  
Takanosuke sighed through his nose, and simply shook his head. "I'm okay..." The blonde said wearily, which he knew wasn't going to fool Sakyo at all, but it was at least worth a shot at being persistent and not just bending to everything he said.  
At first, Sakyo said nothing, and there was the sound of rustling fabric as he appeared to reach into his pocket and look for something before pulling it out.  
"Here." The white-and-red-haired blader said gruffly, holding something out to the younger of the two of them.  
Curious and confused for a moment, Takanosuke turned his cerulean eyes towards the thin, almost flat object that Sakyo held between two of his fingers - their hotel room key card. Before the Griffin Blader had time to say anything, Sakyo spoke, "Take this, go back, and rest. I'll ask the front desk to let me in when I come back."

For several moments, Takanosuke just looked at object, before silently taking it in submission - after all, there was no reason in really arguing with the older blader, seeing as how he was just looking out for him even if he did act rather cold.  
"Okay." The cerulean-eyed blader said softly, looking at the small card for a moment before standing up along with Sakyo in near unison.  
"I'll be here for awhile to see if I can find anything." Said Sakyo, is voice cold, as always, "Until then, you get some sleep."

"Okay.." Takanosuke said once more, suddenly feeling more tired than he previously had. All Sakyo did was nod after getting confirmation from the younger that he would do as he said, before he walked off towards the bookshelf again to the section they had gotten their previous books from.  
With really no other option, Takanosuke simply heeded Sakyo's words and headed back over to the hotel that was, basically, just across the street, getting back into their room with little difficulty other than inserting the card wrong at first.  
The third time, he managed to get it right and was finally granted entrance into the hotel room that he and Sakyo were currently sharing, his head aching dully in his tired state that did not want to seem to calm down.  
It was only more aggravating from the number of headaches that he had been having as of late. Rubbing his left temple slightly, Takanosuke closed the door behind him and began making his way over to the bed closest to the doorway, lazily pulling his shoes off so as to not get the bedding or the carpet too dirty.  
With a yawn, the blonde began to make his way over to the bed, one hand resting and dragging loosely across the bedding as he made his way up towards the pillows.

It was only when the Griffin Blader managed to sit down on the edge of the bed and bring at least one of his legs up onto it did his headache seem to worsen - far beyond the intensity that it had originally been at.

Abruptly, Takanosuke cried out in pain, bringing his hands up to his head upon pure instinct as his head pounded hard, almost as though it was willing to break his skull if given the chance.  
The drowsiness that had originally almost had him sleep-walking had nearly faded away through the sharp pain that ran through his head, his eyes squeezed shut with tears brimming at the edges of his eyelashes.  
His head pounded without resolution, the feeling almost unbearable compared to how it had been earlier that day with the mere discomfort, barely able to think through it as he silently prayed for it to stop...  
He just wanted to stop, why wouldn't it stop?!

 _Flat land and trees surrounding houses from as far as he could see... The mountains in the distance far closer than they originally had been.._

The blonde shook his head, willing the pain to go away as images forced their way into the front of his eyelids, just like they had done yesterday.

 _A large sign.. There was a name on it, a title... What did it say?..._

There probably wasn't a doubt that his nose was bleeding again... He could feel the metallic liquid slowly slide down from his nose to his upper lip, falling onto his tongue and filling his mouth with the dull taste of metal that did nothing to ease the relentless pounding.

 _In the middle of town, surrounded by buildings and cars... Looking towards something on the other side of the street, a shop, perhaps. What did it say?..._

Then, all at once, the pounding stopped.

His head ached now, yes, but the intense pain that had been smashing itself against the inside of his skull had ceased and left him dizzy, tired, aching, and confused.  
The blonde blearily opened his eyes, his vision swimming as he panted from holding his breath for so long under the influence of continuous pain. Taking his hands away from his blonde curls, Takanosuke slowly lifted a hand to the area between his nose and his mouth and wiped away at something there, bringing his hand back to look at the crimson liquid that seemed to be unwilling to stay in him for very long whenever his head started aching like this.  
He should clean his face, so that it would dry and crust over in a filthy mess.  
But he was tired... Since when was he this tired?...  
Before any other thoughts could cross his mind, Takanosuke fell back into the bed without the strength to keep holding his body up, feeling himself slowly slipping away.  
The last thought that came to mind was what that sign ( _Too blurry to see, almost there..._ ) had actually said...

Ishioka.

That was it...

* * *

From the moment they had left the site of the now ruined Sainen-ji Temple, all of them knew that something definitely wasn't right.  
They had managed to come to a possible conclusion that Alcorin was the one behind it, since his powers - of which he had undoubtedly inherited from Nemesis - could do things quite beyond their comprehension, as they had very well learned back in Metal Bey City.  
They had also all managed to possibly figure out that, somehow, Alcorin was observing them from somewhere, just as he had before in Metal Bey City with all those cameras that the WBBA just happened to have lying around.  
How, exactly, he was doing so was beyond them - which was enough to make a few of them somewhat sketchy. It was the thought of how that ran through their minds every now and then as they continued along the road side, cars buzzing past every now and again to head to and fro. The sky - usually wide open and as blue as it could be with summer weather - was now slightly clouded over, making the world seem slightly darker than it really was; it wasn't like it mattered to their sight on it anyway.  
Madoka and Maru were, as usual, at the front and leading the group with Maru's map showing them the way, the rest of them following without much complaint at walking the distance it would take to get to Iwase - how long, exactly, they had no real idea.  
The most they could really do was keep walking and wait until they got there, which could take hours or a day, but they would do it.  
And despite the objective of getting from one destination to the other - albeit blindly -, some of them - like Ren, or Zyro, or even Maru - were unable to shake the fact that Alcorin had been watching them. And probably still was.

Though how was unknown to them, so they couldn't do anything about it. As they continued on their path to their new-found destination, some of them bickered quietly with each other on subjects that either related to what they weer doing or not at all, probably just to clear the tension that seemed to repeatedly build up in the situations they were getting in.  
Ren was up and chatting calmly along with Benkei, Kite and Eight were bickering with each other in their own brotherly way as usual, Madoka and Maru were up at the front of the group, discussing who-knows-what, while the rest of them were fairly quiet.  
Kira, of course, didn't bother talking to anyone, and just followed along without a word as they all made their way through the valley towards Iwase.  
Shinobu walked with Zyro near the back of the group, the two of them hardly talking but passing a few words between each other every now and then about the whole situation, the thought of Alcorin watching them from somewhere - like he might even be doing as they spoke - quite unsettling for both of them, as it was for the others.

"I guess we should have expected it, at least..." Shinobu said with a sigh, shaking his head slightly, "I just don't get how he would know we were coming after him."  
Zyro looked towards the ground, remembering Kira's exact words from several nights ago before they had ever left Metal Bey City. "He wanted us to find him the first time, right?.." The dual-haired blader questioned absently, his blue-eyed gaze glancing over towards his best friend, "He probably did this time too..."  
Shinobu hummed briefly, taking this thought into account. "Manipulative bastard, I'll give him that." The light-haired boy muttered bitterly, and Zyro knew very wel that Shinobu didn't swear too much - in all that they had been through, however, no one would really blame him, "I can't imagine what else he probably has up his sleeves for us..."

"I'd rather not think about it, really..." Zyro said quietly, and didn't miss the small glance that came his way from the other boy beside him.  
As much as he probably would've wanted to, Shinobu said nothing towards that statement except for a barely audible, "Yeah, I know..." Zyro heard him, and, in turn, said nothing in reponse.  
It really was a wonder about what exactly was going on through Alcorin's head, now that they knew that he had more than likely been watching them since they had come to Kasama - probably even before that, when they had first left Metal Bey City.  
Somehow, the sociopathtic bastard always seemed to be at least one step ahead of them, if not a few more. Zyro narrowed his eyes slightly at the ground, thinking bitterly to himself about the whole situation that was now set before them.

Honestly, had they really expected things to be so easy without Alcorin somehow interfering?

Had they actually thought that he wouldn't know they might be coming after him, after rubbing it in his face of the foolish and unwitting mistake they had made?

The Ifraid Blader had no idea what went on in that head of his, but whatever it was, it was definitely twisted in the way that he did things.  
Just how _was_ he keeping track of where they were, what they learned? He was either following them physically, or watching them through some other means that was his powers were more than likely capable of helping with.  
At this point, just about anything was possible when it came to the psychopath. And the possible answer to that question came with a single sound that he had heard repeatedly out of the majority of his childhood.

The croak of a raven.  
And the moment the hollow sound reached his ears, Zyro knew the answer.

 _...Zyro looked up towards from where he had heard the familiar noise, his eyes landing upon the fence that separated them from the outside area of the cafe. A raven. Perched on the top of the wood, black standing out upon white, feathers the same color as most of his hair..._

He had never thought anything of the bird that he had seen back in Mito, staring at him blankly in an unnatural way that he had never thought much of in the state of depression he had been in. Staring at him with dead, blank eyes, that had - as he now remembered - matched Ren's almost exactly back when Alcorin had taken control of her as well.  
At this thought, Zyro glanced his blue eyes upwards, looking both left and right with little movement of his head, before he saw it.  
Just perched on the power lines, silent, unmoving, watching... And suddenly, Zyro felt very pressed down on.

"Zyro?" Shinobu voiced, noticing the rather absent look on his friend's face, "Are you okay?"

Said blader shook himself out of his absent-minded state and glanced over at his friend, then at the ground slightly as though thinking something over as quickly as possible, before looking straight forward again.  
"Shinobu.." The raven-redhead said quietly, almost secretly, making the light-haired boy blink once and raise an eyebrow before Zyro spoke again, "...I think I might know how Alcorin's been watching us.."  
The Salamander Blader's eyes widened at this statement, completely at a loss for words at this sudden revelation from the Ifraid Blader. "What?" Shinobu questioned, his brows furrowed in a confused expression, "How?.. W-why?"

Quickly and quietly, Zyro shushed him, his eyes - as blue as a sky even if a little duller - looking somewhere off upwards, only concerning the light-haired blonde further.  
"I think he's using a bird.." Zyro said, not taking his eyes off of somewhere up above, which made Shinobu follow his gaze up towards the power lines above their heads, lining the road they walked beside.  
There, indeed, was a bird - a raven, in fact; perched on the power lines like a lot of birds tended to do, its head turned towards them in a rather peculiar way...

"I remember seeing it back in Mito, it was the same one..." Zyro went on, Shinobu's eyes glancing back towards him before looking back at the bird on the power lines, "He said he could control anything with a conscious, right?"  
Both boys looked at each other, unspoken words exchanged between them with simple eye contact as they both pieced the pieces together at the same time.  
Really, it did make sense. Alcorin could very clearly control humans to his leisure - who said that he wasn't able to control animals the same way? Most of them were weak-minded, and none would put up a fight.  
And, really, who would suspect a bird, of all creatures, to be the eyes and ears of a psychopath? Shinobu knew as well as Zyro that was it was definitely more likely than any other possibility. With nothing but silent words, the two looked away from each other, Zyro's eyes flashing up towards the winged creature on the power lines one last time out of confirmation ( _paranoia?..._ ) that it was still watching before facing forward once more and heading along with the group.  
It probably wasn't a good idea to share this new revelation with the rest of them at the moment, while Alcorin's little messenger was still watching them - if they did that, he would most certainly find out that they knew and things could take a turn for the worse, more so than already had in the messed up situation they were in.  
With nothing left to do or discuss, they all continued on towards their destination without high hopes...

* * *

As it turned out, Iwase was definitely a bit farther than they thought it would be. Night had fallen and they had all made camp a little ways into the valley's dense wilderness, Maru's map indicating that the town they were headed for shouldn't be too much farther and a short walk come morning.  
Just as they had several days ago, the 9 of them had managed to build a fire for themselves that did nothing for the mild night air, the sky above them only partially blocked out by the trees that surrounded them and the nocturnal wildlife sounding all around them.  
Both Zyro and Shinobu had remained silent about their suspicion of the bird that was following them the entire time, both still deeming it unsafe to do such a thing in the knowledge that it was watching, listening, doing all that Alcorin wasn't entirely there to do.  
It was quite the frightening thought to the both of them, to think they constantly had eyes on them, even if they were the simple eyes of an animal ( _Could it even be considered that anymore?_ ).  
But, nonetheless, they were as silent and secretive about it as possible, carrying on through the day until night had finally overtaken the sky and drenched them all in the darkness that was cast aside by the fire they had going.  
With the rations they had packed they all had a fair share to eat, nobody really saying anything except for discussion between one or two of them - in Kira's case, he wasn't saying anything at all, and simply sat near the fire while looking rather uncomfortable ( _No, that can't be it..._ ) and bitter about being almost huddled near them.  
Seemingly, he didn't like being close to people whether physically or no - or at least not them, anyway.  
The sky was clear, the stars and the moon almost directly above their heads, a slight chill in the air that was able to easily be ignored by the lit warmth they were surrounding.

As the night slowly went on, one end of the sky just a faint dark blue as the sun gradually retreated, all of them - save Kira - conversed with each other in simple small talk, doing their best to keep their minds off the day's conflicting events.  
Zyro and Shinobu sat around with Ren, Kite, and Eight, all 5 of them huddled together on one side of the tamed blaze and talking about this and that with each other, trying as much as they could not to let any of today's - or the past week's - events sneak into the conversation, even if they sometimes did unintentionally.  
However, none of them really paid any mind as they laughed tensely and spoke uneasily.  
Both Maru and Benkei were sitting a little ways away, their conversation barely heard by any of them, but they were clearly able to see they were staying a bit more optimistic than the rest of them - Benkei was going on merrily about something or another while Maru simply had an expression that could express the sarcastic tone of 'really?'.  
Zyro glanced over at the two of them smiled slightly, a tug at the corners of his mouth as the voices of his friends went on around him.  
While all of them were undoubtedly bothered by everything that had taken place as of late, it almost felt odd to try and act like everything was normal.

It felt good, of course, to momentarily forget about all the pain and anguish and just joke around like they used to, but it wasn't the same as it once been.  
Nothing was fine anymore, not really, no matter how much they could pretend and no matter how long they did.

And it was strange, how Maru - out of all of them - managed to remain strong enough to stand on her own two feet and shove all the difficulties they faced aside to deal with what they had at hand, while he took to sulking around in the corner over his own guilt.  
Zyro would never understand how she was able to, when she had been one of the most damaged out of all of them with her involvement of all that had happened over the past month and a half. It was evident that Madoka was proud of her, while the brunette herself was struggling to keep herself standing after all they'd been through.  
Thoughts wandering to that topic made the Fire Blader realize that Madoka wasn't sitting with any of them - she wasn't even anywhere around the fire they had made. Looking around briefly, Zyro moved to get to his feet, drawing the attention of a few of his friends.

"Zyro?" Ren questioned, looking at the now-standing blader questionably.

"I'll be right back." Zyro said simply, taking a moment to look at the woods surrounding them before heading off in the direction that he deemed most likely Madoka would go, which was in the opposite direction of the side of the fire where no one was sitting - it seemed to work in the movies, so why not?  
He was only about a dozen meters into the surrounding forest when he spotted the brunette, seated down on the grass with her knees partially brought up him to her chest, most of her cast in dim shadows while the light from the moon and stars above just barely illuminated her with what light made it through the pine needles of the trees around. The light of the fire partially shone on her back, but didn't do much good from the distance.

"Hey Madoka.." Zyro said quietly, coming over to sit down beside the woman. Madoka jumped slightly at suddenly hearing a voice from behind her, but relaxed just as quickly when she saw who it was that sat down beside her.  
"Oh, hey Zyro." The shop-owner said with a small smile.  
"What are you doing here?" The dual-haired boy asked, concern in his voice as he watched the elder. Madoka simply shook her head with a smile that was weighed with... Anguish, guilt? He couldn't quite tell.  
"Nothing, really.." She said, half dismissively, "I just came to think, is all... I haven't been getting all too much time too, lately." Turquoise eyes drifted away from the young blader, eyelids coming down halfway and looking seemingly towards her feet.

Zyro remained silent as he waited for her to start talking again.

"It's just crazy..." The blue-eyed woman said forlornly, "With all that's been happening, I mean." Zyro felt a small pang in his heart, and he understood, silently looking down towards his own feet.  
"Yeah..." He agreed, unsure of what exactly there was to say to the woman beside him. But Madoka seemed willing to keep talking, and not leave both of them in awkward and tense silence.  
"You think you know a person well enough to see right through them..." She reflected, her voice sounding slightly distant, "I thought I kind of new Gingka almost inside out, but I guess not... Now look where we are.." Zyro knew well what she was talking about.  
It was a thought that most of them probably didn't think about (and which Kira definitely didn't think about), but still more than likely bothered a few of them.  
Not seeing through Gingka's act over the first three weeks of their crazy ordeal with Alcorin, not being able to understand fully what was happening to him and just pushing it aside as no bigger deal than a cold.  
"I mean..." The brunette continued on, sounding somewhat more distressed, "We all knew something was wrong with him, and... We just ignored it, and he ignored it, and..." She let out a shaky sigh through her nose, shaking her head a bit, "We could've done something, I know we could've, if we just... J-just realized what was going on with him, he might be okay.."

Zyro bit his lip, his chest tightening uncomfortably in the grief that was almost overwhelming, filling every one of Madoka's words as she spoke. Tears were starting to brim on the corners of his lashes, but she did whatever she could to hold them in - Zyro, in turn, bit down his own.  
"I just don't get it." The brunette said with a tired sigh, looking up to look almost sightlessly towards the trees in front and around them, almost as if they held the answers, "First he's here, and now he's dead, just because Alcorin couldn't get over the death of Nemesis... I didn't even think about him still watching us until earlier. I just don't understand..."  
The blue-eyed shop owner shook her head again and put her forehead in he hands, looking down in the dark shadows of her lap.  
Zyro licked his dry lips, one thought coming to mind through all that Madoka kept saying. He shouldn't say anything - sometimes it was better not too, when it came to comfort.  
But still... It probably wouldn't bring any comfort to Madoka - he knew it wouldn't, it had brought none to him or any of them that knew about it - but she had the right to know.

Shakily, took a deep breath in through his nose, and exhaled. "He knew..." Zyro said quietly, words that only he and Madoka were allowed to hear.

"W-what?" She questioned, raising her head off of her hands and looking at the boy in confusion. Zyro bit the inside of his lip briefly before continuing, since there was no taking back words.

"Gingka..." The Fire Blader continued, unable to meet Madoka's eyes, "He, uh... B-before the tournament started a couple months ago, he, uh... He talked to me, and he said t-that..." Zyro licked his lips, his chest tightening as his heart pounded against his rib cage, "He said that... T-that the next time someone, like, came after us, he... That he wouldn't.. W-wouldn't be there..." Madoka's eyes widened, staring at Zyro at this sudden revelation that she had never heard of before now.  
Zyro, biting the inside of his bottom lip, looking slightly over towards the woman beside him, still not daring to make eye contact as he continued on in a shaky voice.  
"He knew..." He said again, "..That he was dying, I mean... At least, I-I'm pretty sure he did... And, uh.. I think he knew... About Alcorin, too... Before any of us did." Zyro almost felt like an elephant was standing on his chest, barely able to breath as his heart beat rapidly in the anxiety that formed upon this conversation.  
It was definitely not a form of comfort, not at all, but he knew that Madoka should know. She had the right to, as one of the deceased blader's best friends.  
It probably wouldn't bring her any comfort, but it was the one thing that he could think of to say at a time like this. Slowly, and reluctantly, did Zyro look up towards Madoka, who stared at him with wide turquoise eyes that were outlined by anguish.  
The Ifraid Blader had half-expected the former mechanic to break down crying, or just look away with a blank look at the thought that Gingka had lied to them the entire time - something that he would more than be able to sympathize with.

Instead, the woman simply shook her head, a forlorn look in her now half-closed eyes, turning her head away slightly placing her forehead in one of her hands.  
"That _idiot_..." She murmured bitterly, which the blue-eyed boy had heard say in regard to the redhead many times when he had been alive. "...He could have told us about that..." She carried on, disbelief and grief in her voice, "He knew the entire time, and he could've told us, but he _didn't_..."

"I think he wanted too..." Zyro began, his chest feeling heavy with the same grief that Madoka probably felt, "But... I think he didn't know how too, after not saying anything for a long time..." Of course, Zyro didn't know that sure.  
What he had heard from "Gingka" back in Metal Bey City almost a week ago had been Alcorin's words, which evidently held no form of truth behind them except to get under his skin. None of the had any remote idea of Gingka's motives for keeping his situation a secret, and it could very well be that he _didn't_ want to tell them in the first place.  
It didn't really matter, though, did it? The Legend had not lived to tell them his reasoning.  
Madoka looked over at him slightly, tears just visibly threatening to run down her face as she processed all of the things she had suddenly been told.  
"I guess..." She said with a wavering sigh, one tear falling from her lashes on its own. The brunette appeared to bite her lip for a moment, before speaking once more, her voice more filled with tears than even her eyes.

"..But I don't care if he lied..." Madoka said, shaking her head, "I just wish things were different..." Zyro was unable to say anything to that as the blue-eyed woman half-doubled over and cried silently, small whimpers that she visibly muffled escaping her as she fought against her sorrow.  
Fisting one of his hands in the fabric of his jacket, Zyro looked away, his body shaking as he too felt the tears willing themselves to come out and show themselves - but, as he kept doing, he forced them down, wedging his bottom lip between his teeth.  
Now really wasn't the time the cry - not for him, anyway.  
But Madoka, even after the countless tears she had shed during the time when Gingka had still been comatose, clearly needed this small bit of time to just let a bit of the pressure out.  
After learning that lives had been lost that day because of them in their search for Alcorin, it was a bit more than appropriate to be rather gloomy. The mere thought of it made Zyro's stomach churn, made him feel sick and uncomfortable.  
This is what Alcorin would do to keep them away from him, and that by itself was highly disturbing. With there being no words that could be said, Zyro simply sat there, letting Madoka cry and keeping it just a secret between the two of them until the morning.


	23. Chapter 22 - Deception Game

Chapter 22 - Deception Game

* * *

 _"Takanosuke..."_

Someone was calling his name... It was faint, distant, but it was there, something that sounded so familiar... He couldn't put his finger on it though, his head felt a bit fuzzy...

 _"Takanosuke...!"_

Everything around him felt bleary, unsteady. It didn't make sense, even as the rest of his body became aware of his surroundings though his eyes refused to open themselves... Where was he, again?  
He couldn't quite remember...

 _"Takanosuke!..."_

He was being shook, gently but firmly, his blurry world shaking and trembling before it began to fade away...  
All at once, his body felt heavy as he was shaking by something on his shoulder, getting as much hold of himself as he could before uneasily blinking in the slightest bit. He heard and felt a soft groan leave his lips, the dull heaviness of his head returning as he slowly opened his eyes, vision blurry but clearly able to see that there was someone above him.  
"Takanosuke.." When his voice was called this time it was clearer than it previously had been, and he was finally able to determine who was calling out to him as his vision slowly cleared.

Sakyo.

The older blader stood above him, a look of hardened worry on his face as he shook him lightly with the hand that he had placed on his shoulder, slowly willing the blonde back into consciousness.  
"... Sakyo?..." The blonde breathed, his voice soft and barely audible from the drowsiness that plagued him, his body feeling heavy and his head having a dull ache to it from...  
What was it from?...  
Wait, that's right...  
Sakyo's worry visibly dissolved, a small sigh escaping pale lips at the knowledge that the Griffin Blader was alright - for the most part, at least.  
Slowly did Takanosuke manage to sit up with Sakyo's help, leaning against the pillows and the headboard a bit from his remaining drowsiness that wouldn't allow him to be fully coherent and aware.  
"What happened?..." The blonde asked groggily, his head aching dully as it had a couple other times whenever he had gotten those headaches; he knew why he had passed out, he just couldn't entirely remember much before that.  
"You tell me." Sakyo said gruffly, "I came back and found you unconscious." Cerulean eyes stared at the Dragoon Blader for a moment, trying to work that out in his head.  
Yeah, that was right... He remembered coming back to the room alone.  
He remembered getting that headache that kept coming back for some reason, remembered that it _just wouldn't stop_...

"Sorry..." The Griffin Blader said softly, bringing a hand up and rubbing his head a bit.  
"Don't worry about it." Sakyo said almost dismissively, reaching over to the bedside table beside them and pulling a tissue out of the tissue box placed there in case they were needed.  
Gingerly did he bunch it up and a bit and wipe a few times at the underside of the younger's nose, pulling it away with most of the dried blood on it.  
Takanosuke looked at it for a moment before looking down at his right hand - blood was still smeared on it from earlier when he had wiped away at it.  
He really needed to do something about those nosebleeds, for whatever reason they kept occurring.  
"Did you have one of your headaches again?" Sakyo asked, putting the tissue paper into the small garbage can on the other side of the room.  
Takanosuke looked at him for a moment before taking his hand off his head and settling it in his lap. "Yeah, I think so..." The Griffin Blader said dryly, remember only the smallest bits and pieces of what had happened before he had seemingly fallen unconscious.  
Drowsiness, pain, dizziness...  
What else was there?  
There was something else, but what was it?...

"Hmm..." Sakyo hummed softly at the boy's answer, seeming to think over the problem for a moment without getting any sort of resolution on what exactly to do.  
The most logical thing would be to go to the hospital and get some tests done on the blonde, but he knew that neither of them would likely be able to afford that at all. Either way, the blonde always seemed to be fine afterwards - granted that there was still no way to be sure that the first time it had happened it had actually been that.  
Inwardly sighing, Sakyo decided on the one thing that seemed the most reasonable to do at the moment. "You should rest a bit, then." The Dragoon Blader said firmly, "I didn't find anything at the library, but I suppose we could look somewhere else later if you're feeling better."  
All Takanosuke did was nod, his dull ache in his head becoming even more dull as time went on and not agitating him as much as it previously was.  
Sakyo couldn't find anything, so they would have to look later...

Look somewhere else...  
It was only then did the blonde-haired boy finally clue in to what he had been trying to remember from earlier. There had been pain, dizziness, and there had been something else that he had seen behind closed eyelids.  
He remembered now... It was blurred around the edges, but it was definitely there - mountains, closer than they were at the distance they were currently at from them...  
A sign that had a name on it, the name of a place that was almost too blurry to see. What had it said?...  
Wait, that was right.  
"Sakyo..." The blonde said suddenly, drawing the attention of the other boy who had sat down in a chair on the other side of the room and now held some sort of book in his hands, looking up at blue-eyed boy with his own red ones. "...I think we should go to Ishioka." Takanosuke continued, drawing a slightly confused gaze from the slightly older blader across the room.

All Takanosuke did in response to that, which was nothing more than a silent question, was nod a bit in response.

As far as he was aware, visions of Seers were never wrong - or at least his grandmother's had never seemed to be.

As far as he was able to tell, it meant something, and whether or not it was for better or for worse, Takanosuke had no idea.  
But it _was_ the best thing they had to go on at the moment, wasn't it?...

* * *

For what seemed like almost hours, Kyoya sat there, in his office, thinking.  
In reality it had only been a few minutes, but to his own mind it felt like impossibly longer than that. Perhaps it was simply the matter of the situation that made time seem so lengthened all of a sudden, when previously it could have all gone by in no time.  
But now he had spoken with Tsubasa about the previously irrelevant matters of the BTF tournament, and why exactly it had been brought all to a halt, and he had gotten the answers, and time now seemed to drag on slowly and with unrelenting patience even if it had been the shortest of seconds in the real world. Maybe it was natural though, when you were almost carefree of any burdens and then suddenly got hit in the face with a truth that seemed to weigh down everything and was much bigger than what you were.  
The greenette simply smirked and shook his head at that foolish thought - even if it were true in whatever sense, saying it like that was a bit too sentimental for his own taste.

Either way, his conversation with Tsubasa only hours ago had left him a little dazed and with even more questions than he had actually cared to ask.  
Besides, it wasn't like it would do much good since Tsubasa seemed to only have a limited amount of information as well, and asking anything more probably would've wasted more time than they had spent talking about the matter at hand. Practically the moment he had cut the connection between the two of them, Kyoya had called Kakeru back up to his office and told his younger brother the vague specifics of what he wanted him to look for before sending him on his way.  
He had also called up a few of the workers that both he and Kakeru trusted the most, and instructed them with similar orders that they gladly obliged to, even with some confusion on what it was all about.  
All that the CEO had said was that it was for important matters that suddenly came up, which had be looked into immediately, which seemed to satisfy them all fairly well - the only one he told at least part of the full story to was Kakeru, who seemed to take it calmly but not without some confusion and dazed shock that came before anything else. When he had sent all of them to do that, he set aside the papers that he had previously been working on - he would have time for them later, since they weren't due to be submitted for at least another week - and got down to his own search for information and resources.  
Granted that the internet wasn't really a helpful asset in this kind of matter, he was able to use several other programs and 'applications' that they had developed over the years to his advantage, even if they currently were not providing too much help on the matter.  
He had also contacted Tithi again a few hours earlier and told the purple-haired blader to contact him again in case he found anything - he himself wasn't to sure on the full contents of the Mist Mountain Shrine, but as far as his knowledge went he knew that there were many inscriptions and even some 'prophecies' written upon almost every corner of the walls that made up it's stone interior, so there could potentially be something there.  
After all, Tsubasa had said that that assistant of Madoka's - Maru, was it? - had previously gone with Dynamis to the temple when they had all been trying to find a way to save Gingka with the plan of searching for something that could help them, and that that involved engraved inscriptions on the walls.  
Tithi had agreed, even if he did sound somewhat reluctant to do so in being involved in all of this, but he had promised to contact him if he managed to find anything nonetheless.

With that done, the green-haired blader had gotten back to his own progressing research to which had little provide him at the moment, which was when he had subconsciously leaned forward with his elbows on his desk and laced his fingers together, staring forward aimlessly with unfocused eyes as he allowed himself to just think all of it over, mull over what he could do if possibly find anything, if there was anything to find.  
In truth, this 'Alcorin' character sounded like he wouldn't just be in a civilian records of some small town - God knows where in fact he _did_ come from, other than from the bowels of that formless shadow that had formally made up his apparent father.  
Exactly what could any of them be expecting to dig up on him? The Leone Blader sighed through his nose and looked towards the digital clock on the bottom right hand corner of the computer screen, which now read 9:07 PM - seemed like time had somehow passed way faster than he had actually taken credit for, seeing as how he remembered it being around 1:00 in the afternoon when he had spoken to Tsubasa. It seemed that Kakeru and the other few workers that he had sent on the hunt for anything remotely useful definitely hadn't found anything, since of them had reported back into him yet since he had called them into his office.  
Surely Kakeru would've at least checked up on him unnecessarily like he tended to do quite often, but seemingly not; well, he _had_ explained the full importance of this task to his younger brother, so it could only be reasonable that the youngest Tategami was as focused on his job as possible.  
Even still, what were any of them going to find? He himself so far hadn't found anything that deemed helpful in the situation...

 _"Dammit..."_ Kyoya thought to himself bitterly, _"Of course Hagane had to get himself killed just so that I could through all of this trouble for it."_  
But of course, that was just like the redhead.  
Shaking his head again, Kyoya leaned back in his chair while crossing his arms, thinking how exactly he could find any way around this dilemma.  
Clearly, Tsubasa hadn't been able to come up with anything as of yet, which could most likely be caused by his evident lack of sleep and supposed stress. Fortunately for himself he was naturally well rested and able to think as clearly as he was possibly able to, his mind and eyes sharp as they looked for some way to figure out just _how to find this guy_.  
Nothing was impossible, he knew that for sure from all that they'd been through, so there _had_ to be some solution...  
What managed to pull him out of his deep thought process was the sound of the automatic doors opening and closing, signalling that someone had entered the office and was most likely seeking to speak with him. Kyoya's blue eyes made their way over to the side of the room, seeing that one of the workers he had sent to look for anything useful, Mura, had come into the office.  
"Hello, Director." Mura greeted politely and solemnly. Kyoya let a small smile twitch at the corners of his mouth, sitting up properly in his chair.  
"Hello Mura, I take it you found something?" The green-haired man asked, looking at the black-haired intently as he waited for her report.  
"Not particularly, no." Mura answered solemnly, her black eyes scanning the papers that seemed to be stapled together in her hands, "Kakeru and the others are still researching as much as they can, but so far not much progress has been made."  
Kyoya made a small sound in his throat, a smirk making its way onto his face and revealing his sharp canines from underneath his upper lip. "Well, looks like none of us are having too much luck." The Director said with a small bit of amusement, "I'm not surprised though... It isn't exactly the most well talked about topic."

"So you've found nothing either..." The dark-haired woman said carefully, her voice still professional and flat. "No, but I'm working on it." Kyoya responded, his sharp blue eyes opening half-way and gazing at the woman out of the corner of his sight, "Nothing seems to be coming up with anything useful so far, but I have a few ideas I intend to look into..."  
Narrowly, Mura seemed to raise an eyebrow a bit, though her expression remained calm. "Such as?" Kyoya pulled his eyes away from her and looked at the open screen of his laptop in front of him in a suggestive manner.  
"Well, you know that what I asked of all of you involved both the Bridge To The Future tournament - directed by Tsubasa Otori, and the God of Destruction from seven years ago, right?"

"Of course."

"Well, since I obviously haven't been able to find anything with the means I've used so far, I'll have to take a bit of a different approach..." The green-haired man explained almost slowly, glancing over at Mura for a moment before standing from his seat, "Since this whole thing is relatively connected to Nemesis, I plan to look a bit more into that - lore wise, that is." Slowly, the CEO walked about halfway around his desk, making his way over to one of the windows that lined one side of the wall. "I'm thinking that if one of us looks more into the history and religious backstory of Nemesis, we might be able to find something more reliable than what we've found so far."  
Sharp blue eyes wandered off to the side, as though in a gesture to look over his shoulder to gaze at the woman near the other side of the room.  
Those eyes narrowed slightly, the green-haired man falling silent for a moment, as though he were listening, _waiting_ for something...  
"I see." Mura said in an understanding, her voice still calm and steady, "That's quite a clever idea." Kyoya allowed a smirk to come to his lips, placing one of his hands on his hip as he seemingly gazed out the window towards the slowly darkening world.  
"I'm glad you think so. Of course, it's only a theory, but I think we might actually be able to get something out of it."

"Well, it might work." Mura said solemnly, black eyes never leaving the Director as she quietly set the papers she had been holding down on the corner of his desk. The black-haired woman stepped around the desk until she was right across from where the sharp-eyed Director stood, her own eyes remaining stoic, almost expressionless.  
"Yes, it could..." Kyoya said slowly, his own heart pounding in his chest as he knew what it was that stood half a dozen meters away from him, "But I guess you wouldn't want me finding out, now would you?"

Mura's eyes, previously stoic, widened slightly upon their own accord, taken by surprise even in the state where no such thing should shock her.  
It was all in one moment did Kyoya whip around, pulling two things off of his belt in the same movement before letting out a war cry he hadn't used in ages.

"Leone!"

A bright green aura surrounded the man, an aura that surrounded the Bey he launched within seconds of docking it. Mura, in her relatively stoic state, did nothing but watch as this happened, waiting for Fang Leone to make impact with her, which visibly seemed to be looking to shatter bones at the speed it headed towards her at.  
However, it didn't hit its supposed target as it raced past her, the force of it making her move back a step as it made contact with the wall on the opposite side of the room of which Kyoya stood.  
The black-haired woman glanced over her shoulder briefly, an uncaring look on her face as she watched the Bey that had flown at her quickly race back to the other side of the room back to it's blader that it knew.  
"You know, from what I've heard of you..." Kyoya began, his eyes narrowed with their predatory gleam, "You _do_ specialize in deception, don't you, Alcorin?"  
The only reaction he got was Mura's calm face - the one that he could not be sure was actually hers...

* * *

Alcorin took pride in his skills of deception, especially since he was capable of taking it to a different level with the powers he had been born with.  
One simple word, and the human mind would break under his fingertips, left wide open for him to control to his will until he had no more use for them. He played with them like puppets, strings wrapped around every joint and limb, no free will but for the struggling consciousness that was unwilling forced into the very back of their corrupted minds.  
Simply marionettes, the source of their lives connected to the strings that he pulled. It was the same as he pulled the strings on Mura, watching idly from afar, seeing in through the windows of Kyoya's office, seeing everything through her speech and the strings that he controlled with his own mentality.  
Kyoya wouldn't see him, of course not, but he could see him perfectly well.  
And when Kyoya had figured out his, or 'Mura's', act as quickly as he did, he really wasn't all that surprised.  
After all, he was a smart person, so one of his little messengers had described.  
Even with the very minor dilemma that he had figured it so quickly, a small smile made it's way onto the albino's white lips, a small chuckle escaping from him. It didn't matter that he knew of the variety of abilities that he had, that he knew of his games of deception, because soon enough Kyoya wouldn't be a problem with him. Even though none had been truly present to hear his words, he had warned what would happen should another Legendary Blader get in his way.

"How persistent you all are..." The psychopathic control freak said with an amused sigh, "It seems I'll just have to do something about the lot of you, now won't I?"  
Yes, he would definitely have to.  
Then he would have to get back to focusing on Zyro and the rest of them, not to mention Sakyo and Takanosuke of who still seemed to be on the lookout for him as well...

Honestly, none of them knew when it was time to quit... The mere thought reminded the albino of that wretched little being, and he sneered slightly in irritation.

"We'll see how long all of you hold out... But for now..." That smile reappeared on his face, cat-like eyes narrowing and glowing with their demonic heritage, "Let's play with _you_... Shall we?"  
In that decision, he moved the strings...

* * *

Out of what could almost be described as boredom, Kakeru lightly strummed his fingers on the keyboard, just lightly enough so that they wouldn't type any unwanted words into the 'Search' bar.  
He wasn't entirely sure how much time had passed from the time that his older brother had given him this assignment to now, but he knew that it had at least been hours.  
So far, neither him nor the 3 other of his colleagues had found anything. Kyoya had told him what it was that they were trying to look, even if the entire prospect of the situation was a bit much for his mind to full comprehend.  
The younger Tategami had obliged to look regardless, but even still... How did someone even _find_ the child of a god, anyway?

Kakeru simply sighed and shook his head, leaning back in his chair and gazing up towards the ceiling.  
Maybe Kyoya was having better luck with it, but who knew at this point? Glancing over to the side a little bit, the green-haired assistant saw that both Tamaki and Nori were still trying to find something that could be a potential lead for them, but it was evident that they were both running out of hope to find anything as well.  
Crossing his arms over his chest, feeling both bored and hopeless, Kakeru glanced over to where Mura had previously been sitting, the chair still pushed out with her announcement that she would be back shortly. She had told the remaining three of them that she was going to go and report to the Director their progress so far, even though they had very well come up with nothing, and then had gone on her way.  
She had been gone for a few minutes now, but it would probably take a little bit to discuss the whole assignment with his brother anyway.  
She had also probably been pretty eager to get away from the desk after that small little spider that had bitten her finger from under it when she had placed her hand on her knee - Nori had tried to kill it with a hardcover book that had been laying around, but had remained unsuccessful in the attempt.  
The youngest Tategami hummed quietly for a moment before looking back to his own computer, tapping his right index finger against the crook of his left elbow in thought.

He wasn't entirely sure why (maybe he had an idea of why), but something about all of this was giving him a bad feeling.  
He really hadn't been told much about this god-child-guy, or whatever he was was, but something about the last few hours, almost since they had been given this assignment, just kept gnawing at the back of his mind and he wasn't sure why.  
Director Tsubasa Otori seemed to be the one who had most of the situation under control, and his older brother had evidently offered to help out with the new situation that they had only very recently been introduced to after an apparent month of being in the shadows.  
From the way it sounded, those back in Metal Bey City seemed to be handling the situation fairly well (or at least as well as anyone could handle something like this), so there shouldn't really be anything to worry about other than finding something that would prove helpful to all of them.

But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that that was true, something just felt so... Off.  
Unsure of what to do, Kakeru glanced up towards the ceiling with his eyes, almost as if trying to see through the upper floors as to determine why something felt wrong.  
But of course, he wasn't able to do that. Surely his older brother would be able to figure out something if they couldn't...

Eyes of blue and black were locked onto each other, one pair staring into the other with a predatory gleam, while the other pair stared back in a stoic calm that didn't suit the situation whatsoever.  
However, Kyoya could hardly bring himself to care on what Mura's (was that even her?)expression was. "You _do_ specialize in deception, don't you, Alcorin?"  
For several moments, nothing was said by the other, black eyes and a stoic face staring blankly at him as though completely indifferent to the fact that she (she?) had nearly been killed by the bey that he wielded - and perhaps she really didn't care.

After all, what was it to a god?

Then, after several moments of silence between the two of them, a faint chuckling sounding from the woman across the room. Kyoya's eyes narrowed further, a dangerous look in them as he heard the sound that was not, but any standards, Mura's voice.  
Only after the chuckling - more like a demented giggle - stopped, did Mura actually open her mouth to speak, her expression as stoic as ever and greatly contradicting the voice that wasn't hers.  
 **"Well, I guess you** ** _are_** **as smart as I expected."** In that moment, Kyoya froze at the mere sound. The words matched in sync with the movement of her lips, but it was far from Mura's voice - more like 2 voices overlapping each other, mixed together to create some ungodly symphony that somehow managed to strike Kyoya to his core and make his skin crawl.  
Mura's face was blank, but that voice was something entirely different, and not human.  
 **"At least you're brighter than that friend of yours back in Metal Bey City."** Mura continued on, the voice that came from her mouth seeming to smile while she herself didn't.  
"I kind of expected you to be better at hiding your whereabouts, Alcorin." Kyoya said back with a sharp edge to his voice, "From what Tsubasa was telling me, you're better than this at tricking people."  
A chuckle was heard from the raven-haired woman, though her features were still as blank and emotionless as ever. **"Usually I** ** _am_** **fond of making sure nobody knows..."** Alcorin admitted with genuine amusement in his inhuman voice, **"But where's the fun in that? It makes playing with you much less entertaining."**  
Kyoya's eyes glared at the woman across from him, looking into blank eyes. "I'm not interested in your games." The green-haired man said sharply, his blue eyes having a greenish highlight to them, "Besides, I already know how it is you play around. Disguising yourself as one of my subordinates is pretty low.. But if you're actually controlling her, that just proves you're a coward all the more."

A ungodly laugh sounded throughout the room, making the Leone Blader give an involuntary shiver as the sound reached his ears, almost like it was trying to work its way into his head, get at some part of him that was most vulnerable.  
 **"A coward, huh?"** Alcorin's said with malicious laughter, and Kyoya could almost swear he saw the edges of Mura's lips curl up slightly in a smirk in response, **"You can call me that all you want, Kyoya, but we both know how this is going to play out... Because you're just like little Tsubasa... You** ** _care_** **about your underlings too much to see reason. Which is why I know that you wouldn't hurt dear Mura, now would you?"**  
Kyoya's eyes narrowed again, frowning. "What makes you think I'm anything like Tsubasa?" Kyoya asked, choosing his words quickly and carefully with that devious part of his nature, seeking to possibly beat the psychopath at his own game that they were both fairly adept at, "How do you know if I actually care about them or not? After all, they're far below me."  
Another laugh resounded throughout the room, Mura's stoic face still like a void even while the voice that came from her mouth held too many different emotions to even comprehend. **"How?... Simple."** Alcorin went on, a malicious intent in his voice that was capable of unnerving the strongest willed people, **"Because you have a little brother."**  
Automatically, Kyoya's eyes widened, so foolishly unsuspecting of the mention of Kakeru that his reaction was beyond his control.  
He almost felt his heart stop, his chest aching at the feeling of the sudden feeling of nervousness washing over him.

In response, there was a sound that could be described as someone smiling; just from the sound of his voice, Kyoya could almost envision the body language that went along with it.  
 **"There it is."** Alcorin said softly, his overlapping voices almost sounding soothing, **"You see, Kyoya, you** ** _do_** **care about them, just like dear Tsubasa does... I know** ** _he_** **does because I've watched the way he's worked for a long time... And while I may have only been watching you for a few hours, I can tell you care about your underlings... All because you have your dearest brother here."**  
Kyoya stiffened, his pupils dilated as he stared at the woman across from him, his throat suddenly dry as that voice surrounded him throughout the entire room.  
Something about the words that the supposed god was speaking was just so unsettling, so _not right_ that it couldn't have actually been something that was spoken.  
Just the simple way he spoke about his brother, as if suddenly using his only flesh and blood against him so casually was no big deal, chilled him to the bone - and that was a hard thing to do. **"Not only that,"** Alcorin went on teasingly, **"But he even** ** _works_** **under you. And believe me, I've seen how all of you Directors work long enough to know, that if you care about** ** _one_** **of your underlings, you often care about the others, especially the ones that you trust the most. You can dance your way around the truth as much as you like, Kyoya, but you know you care for dear Mura, and that's** ** _exactly_** **why you won't do anything."**

A growl emanated from Kyoya's throat, the dull aura around him beginning to intensify, which the Bey in front of him reacted to through a soul bond that connected them.  
A small chuckle was heard, a sound that could've almost, at one time, been sweet and untainted, but now was filled with nothing but a malicious and dark intent.  
 **"You can try and deny it all you like, Kyoya."**

Said blader froze at the words spoken - not because of how or what was spoken, but because that voice now seemed closer than it previously had.  
 **"Believe me, you can do anything you want, attack her all you like... I won't stop you... But then... I** ** _wonder_** **what little Kakeru would think of that?"** Kyoya's eyes narrowed, trying not to let the words of the inhuman sociopath get into his head and twist him around to his leisure - he knew how Alcorin worked from Tsubasa's input on it, and he was not about to become one of his puppets in this game of his.  
"Leave Kakeru out of it." The Leone Blader said sternly, his eyes giving off a dangerous gleam as he looked at the brainwashed woman across from him, "He's not involved in this like I am, so don't try bringing him in."

 **"Not involved? Oh please..."** Alcorin chuckled, his unworldly voice everywhere and yet in one place at the same time, **"You've** ** _already_** **involved him in this, Kyoya, I didn't have to do anything.."** Kyoya glared at the woman across from him, almost as if trying to see the physical form of the separate entity that controlled her in his growing irritation.  
 **"The moment you agreed to help Tsubasa, you're dearest little brother was brought into it too."** The demi-god mocked, his voice so close to the greenette that it he could have been behind him, just feet away, **"After all, how would you** ** _ever_** **be able to keep a secret from the only family you have? You care too much about him to keep such a thing from him... And that's what's going to get him killed."**

Kyoya's eyes widened, his heart almost threatening to stop in his chest at those words.

His entire body froze, his breathing hitching all in the same motion which almost made him feel like choking.

 **"What, did I hit a nerve on that one?"** Alcorin asked, almost sounding genuinely confused in a way that was clearly mocking him.  
All Kyoya did in response was stand there, entire body frozen as thoughts invaded his mind uninvited, thoughts that he would have never even brought into his mind until now at the simple thought.  
Kakeru had worked beside him for years, and not once had he even thought of the possibly that he could get his younger brother killed in their line of work - after all, what exactly were the odds? TC was a huge office building that they all worked in with regular outings in the field with those in the lower standing, why would he really suspect such a thing?  
As much as he tried to will away those thoughts, force the words out of his mind that just seemed so _enticing_ , Kyoya was well aware that Alcorin had hit a nerve; both of them were.  
But even with the incredibly unbearable subject that he had never once before brought to mind, the Leone Blader knew very well that it was all just apart of trying to win the game that they were both wrapped up in.  
Before Kyoya had time to even compose himself, or saying anything in response, Alcorin spoke once more, and the green-haired blader could _hear_ him smiling.

 **"You know, it's just so typical... It seems to be the same with all of you..."** Alcorin went on, **"The thing that always sets all of you humans off, the** ** _one_** **thing that seems to get to every single one of you, is having the people you care about the** ** _most_** **put on the line."** A small chuckle sounded, **"Pretty bland after awhile, but, hey, it makes things all the more easier for me. It makes it just** ** _so_** **much easier to break all of you down into tiny pieces... But sometimes, all it takes to crush the human mind is just a single word. Your dear Mura proves that quite well..."**  
Kyoya wasn't stupid, he knew what Alcorin was looking for.  
A way to break him, and using his younger brother was definitely a sure-fire way of doing so if anyone had to immediately guess.  
There was something about those words, that god-forsaken _voice_ that just made all of it sound so convincing, something unnaturally manipulative about it, that almost made him want to fall as another victim too it... Almost.  
Kyoya knew this game, and he had played several times with people that were just regular people, powerful CEOs who were convinced they could twist him around their fingers just because he was much younger and supposedly less experienced, and he usually ended up winning on most occasions - he was not going to let Alcorin be the one to bend him backwards.

With that final thought, confidence and stubbornness being the only things that kept him standing, Kyoya forced all his previous thoughts from his mind, blocking them out and refusing them entry as he trained himself on the one thing that was actually important at this very moment.  
Tossing a few locks of his long hair over his shoulder, Kyoya scoffed slightly as he fixed his sharp blue eyes upon his opponent.  
"Well, either way, it looks like words are all you've got, Alcorin." The greenette said, his voice firm and steady in his resolve.  
From the brief silence that filled the room, with seemingly nothing to be said from the other entity, Kyoya could only guess that he had let down the god - at that, he smiled smugly.  
"I honestly find it hard to believe that Gingka could be killed by someone like you... You seem like all talk more than anything."  
For several moments, there was still silence from the demi-god in the room, Mura still standing there motionlessly until her captor decided to speak, and even then there was still a smile to be heard in his voice.  
 **"Is that so?..."** Alcorin's almost body-less voice spoke, amusement flowing through it as if he knew something that Kyoya did not, **"Well then, if you want to prove me wrong, then by all means, Kyoya..."** Mura's pale arms spread out on either side of her at an angle, her body language clearly saying that she would welcome whatever he would throw at her, **"Give it your best shot."**  
Light blue eyes narrowing, predatory instinct flashing in them as the green aura around him intensified, Kyoya looked towards the Bey in front of him before throwing his hand out towards his opponent.  
"Gladly... Leone!"

At it's comrade's call, Leone's face bolt pulsated in roar with the spirit of the lion it contained, its aura the exact same as its blader's as it took heed to the exact orders it was given, taking off at lightning speed towards the brainwashed woman across the room.  
Mura's face was simply stoic, her arms still stretched out in invitation to the attack that was to come - but of course, Kyoya knew that she that was only because of what Alcorin was commanding her to do.  
Leone, much with the predatory instinct that the lion was born with, leapt into the air at full speed, the dim wind current channeling through the room giving the Bey the extra strength it needed to fire itself towards Mura, who stood there waiting for the impending moment when the king of beasts would strike her down like it had so many others before...  
But Leone never struck her.  
Not directly; it shot past her once more, it's fierce edges just grazing her cheek and sending her stumbling back with the force of the winds that it's power created, unfit for the confined space of the office.  
Unlike before, Leone pulled itself back from crashing into the wall, landing squarely on the floor behind the black-haired woman and maneuvering around to the side, where it stood still in waiting for its next orders. Kyoya glared at his opponent, his stance ready for whatever attacks Alcorin would throw (if he threw any), his sharp canines just barely showing.  
"Well, are you going to fight me or not?" The Leone Blader challenged, "From the way things sound, you didn't just show up here to challenge me to a petty fight, now did you?"

( _A smile crossed his face, so sweet upon a white face that it was anything but normal_ )

For several moments, there was no answer, before a small chuckle emanated through the room that didn't fail to make Kyoya shiver as an unpleasant tingle went up his spine.  
 **"You're clever, Kyoya..."** Alcorin said in a way that almost sounded like a genuine compliment, Mura's lips moving to fit with the voice as it spoke, **"A bit** ** _too_** **clever for my taste, though..."**  
Before Kyoya had time to react, Mura thrust her hand out in front of herself, and invisible force seeming to grab onto him and force him back into the wall, several feet from the ground.  
 **"Maybe we** ** _should_** **stop playing around... After all, there are far troubling little pests that I have to deal with already. Besides, what's one more less Legendary Blader?"**  
Kyoya struggled to breathe, trying to move his body to get himself free but finding almost everything to be locked in place by something he couldn't see - was this part of the extent of what Alcorin's power could do?  
Abruptly, whatever was holding him against the wall disappeared, allowing him to drop to the ground. Gasping slightly for breath, predatory instinct called out to the green-haired Director, telling him to get up before the god could make another move and fight for his own survival. Growling slightly, Kyoya got to one knee and raised his head in a war cry.

"Leone-!"

Kyoya never finished his command to his Bey, his heart almost stopping in his chest as his breath hitched, looking at who _should_ have been Mura.

But it wasn't.

It was Kakeru.

Standing there with a blank expression on his face, staring at him with blank, black eyes that could haunt someone's soul. Kyoya knew, in that moment, that he should've known better.  
 **"What, can't bring yourself to hurt your dearest little brother, Kyoya?** Alcorin spoke before an unbearable laugh sounded in his ears, Kakeru thrusting his hand out in front of him just as Mura had, and that same invisible force clung onto the Leone Blader and lifted him into the air, almost seeming to grip him around his chest and dangerously close to his neck.  
Kyoya grunted slightly in discomfort and perhaps frustration, but was unable to take his eyes, dilated and haunted, away from the form of his younger brother, who stood there with a vacant expression on his face - a face that, in a reality that Kyoya knew all too well but was unable to realize in time, wasn't actually Kakeru's.  
 **"Now this is just precious..."** Alcorin said with a childish giggle lining the edges of his voice, the sound coming from Kakeru's mouth just as it had Mura's, **"You keep talking with such big words, but you really** ** _are_** **as pathetic as I thought."** Even while he stared at the form of his younger brother, Kyoya could hear the sound of a smile in those words, **"You love your dearest younger brother far too much to even** ** _consider_** **hurting him... You couldn't even bring down sweet little Mura. I thought your main idea was survival of the fittest, Kyoya?"**

A laugh emanated through the air, and the greenette suddenly felt the force that was originally around his chest and torso wrap around his neck, cutting off most of his airway and making him abruptly gasp for breath that he could barely gain.  
 **"If you hadn't fallen for such a petty trick like this, you might have actually been able to do something for dear Tsubasa and all of your other friends."** The demi-god taunted, merciless in his onslaught of manipulating words that dug themselves into Kyoya's ears, trying to force their way into his headand wrap everything that was most vulnerable about him, **"I mean,** ** _honestly_** **, you should know perfectly well how it is that I play from all Tsubasa was telling you... If you really knew, if you were really that smart, you would know..."** Kyoya, in his struggling state, opened his previously shut eyes and looked down towards the false form of his brother, which now had an eerie smile etched onto his face in the place of Alcorin, staring at him with black eyes that weren't his, **"... Eyes are the windows of the souls, after all."**

Kyoya's eyes widened, almost completely forgetting the need to get air properly to his lungs before he was slammed hard back into the wall behind him, feeling the wind getting knocked out of him which did not help with the current strangulation.  
Even as he was somehow pressed even harder against the surface behind him, Kyoya still tried doing all he could to struggle, to get away from this manipulative psychopath, gripping at whatever was wrapping itself around his neck and pulling in a desperate attempt to get air to his lungs; yet all of it did nothing.  
 **"You know, Kyoya..."** Alcorin began, **"This is quite similar to way I killed Dynamis... But, you know, he was struggling a bit more. I didn't really have a feel for playing with him though, he was far too much trouble...**  
The thing that held the Leone Blader pulled him forward for a moment before slamming him back again, this time the distinct sound of sharp 'cracking' reaching the ears of the CEO.  
It was only then, through the unbearable force that was pressing against him, that Kyoya felt something cold pressing against his head and back that couldn't have been the walls - Alcorin was pressing him against one of the windows. Still trying in vain pull whatever was choking him away from his neck, Kyoya glared weakly at the form of Kakeru, who he knew was just Mura possessed all the more by this psychopath.  
".. Asshole..." The Director choked out, his ears alert to the sound of the slow cracking on the glass behind him, his vision becoming blotched with black spots as he fought for air.  
 **"How mean..."** Alcorin responded with a small laugh, **"...And to think, Kyoya.. You could've avoided all of this-"**

"Chimera!"

Along with an unexpected cry came a light that Kyoya was able to barely recognize, the false form of Kakeru turning its head in partially stoic shock before being blasted away by something that Kyoya didn't see before he dropped to the ground, to forceful pressure that had been trapping him releasing its grip and allowing him to fall to the floor.  
Mura, now reverted back to her original form, slowly got up from the floor and onto her knees, her stoic face twitching slightly from the pain that her brainwashed self didn't mentally acknowledge and looking towards the entrance to the office with blank eyes.  
Only when the dust from the sudden attack disappear did she see who was standing there.  
Kakeru, his blue eyes fierce, stood there in the doorway, his launcher out in front of him from firing off his own Bey - Chimera - which spun near the center of the room about where she had originally been standing.

( _Red eyes narrowed, his smile disappearing at the sudden appearance of the younger Tategami, displeasure written all over his face_ )

"Leave Kyoya alone!" The younger greenette demanded, lowering his launcher and glancing towards his bey, ready to fight to defend against whatever it was that was here, whatever was after Kyoya, whatever seemingly had Mura in its grasp as well - Kakeru didn't know much about the situation, true, but he knew enough to guess what was going on.  
For several long moments ( _Moments, minutes, hours, what was the difference?_ ) the two stared at the other, blank eyes staring into determined ones, eye contact never breaking in a discussion that didn't exist, couldn't be exchanged.

( _He frowned, and flicked his hand to the side - there was no point here_ )

It was only after those long moments of staring did Mura suddenly collapse to the ground, her body faintly quivering from the aching that likely made it's way to her brain even in her unconscious state.  
Kakeru then let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, his shoulders sagging in relief as his heart beat fiercely in his chest from the anticipation and nerve-wracking tension, and it wasn't going to slow down any time soon.  
"Kyoya!" The youngest Tategami cried out, his face contorting in worry as he hurried over to his older brother, Divine Chimera making its own back to him as he ran past.  
"Kyoya!..." Kakeru knelt down beside his older brother, taking him by the shoulder and rolling him onto his back, "Kyoya, please, answer me..."  
The younger of the two brought his head down and hovered his cheek over his brother's mouth, desperate to feel a puff of warm air on his skin - but there was none.  
Biting his lip, panic starting to set in, Kakeru pressed his ear gingerly against his brother's chest, looking, listening, for a heartbeat, praying that he was _still alive_...

And he found one.

Faint, but still there - but if he wasn't breathing, it wouldn't be there for long.  
The green-haired assistant sat up straight again, his blue eyes - the ones that matched his brother's fairly well - darting across his brother's beaten body, turning his head and looking towards Mura near one of the other walls...  
 _"Dammit, dammit, dammit..."_ He cursed internally, barely able to think properly in the situation he was presented with.  
Breathing frantic, Kakeru turned his head and looked towards the doorway of the office, where several concerned workers now stood, wondering what all of the commotion and noise was about.  
"Somebody call an ambulance!" Kakeru commanded, a pleading look in his eyes as he looked at the small group of people for a moment before turning back to his brother, hearing fast footsteps becoming lighter in the background as someone went to do as ordered.  
Entirely lost, panic mode settling in place, Kakeru whimpered softly as tears came to his eyes in the anxiety and confusion of it all, trying to clear his mind with the hopeful fact that an ambulance would be on its way. But it was impossible - there was no comfort to be gained here.


	24. Chapter 23 - In And Out Of Darkness

Chapter 23 - In And Out Of Darkness

* * *

The sun had already risen quite far into the sky by the time Zyro and the others had arrived in Iwase the next morning.  
They had gotten up rather early, but even then it was already fairly bright out - they had then all sat there and eaten a bit of what they had brought with them before setting off from their little camping spot, extinguishing the smoldering fire before they left and getting all of their things together. Zyro had glanced over at Madoka a few times that morning, noticing how the area around her eyes was still a bit red from a crying the previous night - he didn't doubt that Maru was able to notice, and probably Benkei and a few others as well, but none of them said anything about it, because there was no sense in asking what was wrong.  
In all that had been occurring as of late, crying was one of the reasonable things any of them could do (save for Kira who remained as passive as ever), and nobody would really be able to question why if they did.  
Especially in Madoka's case, since she had been one of the closest friends Gingka had had back when he was alive, and it was undoubtable that she had at least some form of love for him, whether romantic or platonic.  
So if anybody else did notice - and there was no doubt that someone did - nobody said a thing about it, even if they were curious; the previous night, however, was just between Madoka and Zyro, and neither of them were keen to bring it up to each other either so that it may just be forgotten when ( _if_ ) all of this could finally be over.

Iwase was actually rather small, to say the least.  
Maru said her map clearly depicted so, and it was definitely right now that they were here - of course, while it was convenient in not having a huge city to look over with the very likelihood of never finding anything, it only gave them a limited amount of resources to look at, and chances were that this place didn't have anything to give them either.  
However, with no other options for them after the burning and collapse of Sainen-ji Temple, they were definitely willing to try (or most of them were, at least).

"This place really is small." Ren commented as she looked around with her brown eyes, observing their surroundings of which, in truth, weren't that much.  
"I told you there wasn't that much here." Maru said, her lavender eyes looking up towards the older girl for a moment, "Iwase is a really small town."

"Well, whatever..." Madoka said with a shrug, "It's the only option we have right now, so we might as well see if there's anything here."  
Kite pushed his glasses up on his nose, the light of the sun reflecting off of them. "I'm going to go ahead and say," He began, "There isn't a very likely chance of that. _A_ chance, but still..."

"Wonderful input." Kira muttered with a roll of the eye, but Kite chose to ignore him.  
"Considering what happened yesterday," The data-obsessed blader continued, "I wouldn't be surprised if Alcorin's already one step ahead of us on it."  
Ren looked over her shoulder at the spikey-haired brunette. "Maybe he hasn't gotten here yet; if there really isn't anything here, then I'm sure he won't even bother trying to come after us."

"Which won't exactly mean anything that good for us either way." Madoka concluded, giving Ren a thoughtful glance which she returned with a meek smile.  
Zyro, listening to the conversation as Eight, Shinobu, and Kira were as well, sucked lightly on his upper lip before looking up towards the sky, glancing around with his eyes that the area they were walking through for any sign of that bird - so far, he couldn't see anything.  
Shinobu glanced over at him, being the only one who really knew what Zyro was looking for at this time, but didn't say a word to him.  
Instead, he took his eyes away from his best friend and instead looked towards the most part of the group. "We should probably find out exactly what's here before we start looking..." The light-haired blader suggested almost quietly, "That way we aren't just walking around aimlessly like before."  
Most of the group, save for Kira and Shinobu himself, glanced back towards the Salamander Blader before looking away and sweatdropping.  
"We really have been doing that, huh?..." Madoka muttered in slight embarrassment.  
"Yes, you have." Kira said nonchalantly, earning a slight glare from Ren.  
"If you knew, then why didn't you inform us about that?" She questioned, raising a blonde eyebrow, "Aren't you mainly here to scold us?"  
Kira merely flicked his hand off to the side with a small tug at the corners of his purple-coated lips. "You all seemed pretty confident in your strategy, I didn't really see the point." The multicolor-haired boy explained with a small shrug, "Besides, it seemed to work for the most part, didn't it?"

Ren just looked at him for a few more moments before shaking her head and looking way. Really, there was no point in arguing with Kira - it wasn't like the Bahamoote blader really cared all that much. "Hey, do you know anything about Iwase, Kira?" Maru asked, looking back over her shoulder and turning her torso slightly to be able look at him.  
Kira's one eye looked towards the small girl, looking at her for a moment before speaking. "I never even knew this place existed until now, I never came this far over." He said plainly.  
"So, no, otherwise." Kite stated with a sigh at Kira's usual self - honestly, even with Maru he was difficult to work with.  
"Might as well find out on our own, then." Benkei said with a small shrug. Madoka glanced over at her friend before looking down towards her assistant.  
"Hey, Maru, can you open up your map for me?"  
"Sure, Chief." The pink-haired girl said obediently before stopping in her tracks on the sidewalk to bring up the map in her bracelet.  
All of them stopped walking as well and scooted over to the side so as to let other people who currently traveled along the sidelines of the road pass by without getting in their way. Bringing up the holographic screen, Maru used to fingers to zoom the screen in so that she could get a better understanding of their surroundings, scanning her lavender eyes over it a couple times before speaking.  
"We're right here, by the Aoyagi district near the downtown area." The pinkette pointed to a certain spot on the map, "I don't know exactly where we could look for anything, but there is a small library over here."  
She pointed to another part of the map which was the downtown area, indicating that it was a bit more to the north, "But not much else... All I really see on here is just a bunch of shops, stores, parks... And there's a hospital on the other side of town."

"We could ask around." Benkei suggested, "Maybe people around here are friendly."  
Zyro looked over towards the Manager. "They usually are, in small places like this." The Ifraid Blader stated matter-of-factly, "I should know..."  
Madoka, looking at the screen herself for a few moments, shrugged her shoulders. "Even if they aren't, it might as well be worth a try to get something out of this place." The shop-owner stated, "... I should also call Tsubasa later, and see how he's doing on his end."

"Chances are, he not doing that much better." Kite said flatly.  
"Big bro has a point..." Eight said rather glumly, glancing up towards the older Unabara before looking back down.  
"Who knows?" Ren questioned with a shrug, "At least we know we're probably on the right track, since Alcorin clearly doesn't want us to find him, after what happened back there." The blonde made a gesture with her head to behind her, which vaguely indicated she was talking about the Sainen-ji temple.  
"Looks like someone's optimistic about that..." Kira muttered lowly, standing with one hand placed on his hip. Zyro, Shinobu, Kite, and Eight looked over towards the multicolor-haired blader for a moment at the remark before looking away again.  
After all, it was just Kira being... Well, himself. And even though he wasn't being the most helpful at the moment (which all of them were able to notice), they knew perfectly well that he was just there to make sure they stayed grounded - and as of right now, he really didn't _need_ to do anything to assure it.  
"I guess..." Madoka said with a hint of uncertainty, getting up from her slight crouching position, "Well... Let's get to it. It could take awhile to find anything around here."  
The rest of them agreed with this notion, despite the fact that they also might not find anything in Iwase. Regardless, they all set off on the sidewalk once again to pass the Aoyagi district, heading towards the downtown area...

* * *

"Kyoya's in the hospital?" Tsubasa repeated in questioning with shock in his voice, the sudden news that he was hearing over the phone from the TC Director's younger brother being something that he definitely wasn't expecting, especially after explaining everything to him just the day before.  
"Yeah, he was admitted last night.." Answered the weary voice of Kakeru from the other side of the line, "The doctors said that he's stable, but he's under 24 hour watch."  
Tsubasa furrowed his eyebrows and leaned forward in his office chair slightly, his original weariness (even after the fairly good sleep he had had the night before) forgotten as he focused on his concern over his apparently injured friend.  
"I don't get it, what the hell happened?" The WBBA Director questioned.  
"I don't know." Kakeru said with a sigh that showed he knew it wasn't helpful, "I didn't really see what happened, I just got there and he was being attacked by... Me. Like, not _me_ , me, but..." A small breath of confusion and weariness escaped the Tategami's mouth, "Apparently, it was one of my co-workers, Mura, and she looked like me for some reason, and then she was her again, and... Look, I don't really know _what_ was going on, but from the context of things, it sounds like it has something to do with your situation."  
Tsuabsa had listened intently through Kakeru's flustered spiel, and he knew right away what it was.  
It wasn't like he hadn't suspected it beforehand, but now this was more confirmation than he needed.  
One of the workers of the TC seeming to mindlessly attack Kyoya, looking like Kakeru and then herself... From all the experience he had over the last couple months, he knew the answer.

Letting out a sigh, the silverette pinched the bridge of his nose in slight frustration. "Yeah, that sounds like it..." Tsuabsa said with sigh, "I didn't think something like this would happen so quickly after I just spoke to him yesterday..."

"You expected this would happen?" Kakeru questioned, confusion evident in his tone.  
Tsubasa was silent for a moment, realizing that, perhaps, Kyoya hadn't told his younger brother the whole story and the consequences that he had himself had told the greenette would possibly follow.  
Shaking his head slightly, the President of the WBBA leaned back in his chair, the weariness from earlier slowly returning to him.  
"Not entirely, but I had a feeling..." The silverette explained, his golden eyes glancing towards the windows and door of his office, paranoia of the possible eyes watching him (he had never been able to really ignore the fact that that had indeed been a fact) making him slightly skittish, "Something like this happened to one of the other Legendary Bladers, Dynamis; I'm sure you've heard of him..."  
"Yeah, I have." The younger Tategami responded almost immediately, "But he's... Dead, isn't he?" Tsubasa noticed how Kakerus's voice became slightly uneasy, "I heard about it from that other Legendary Blader, Tithi."  
The WBBA Director sighed through his nose. "Yeah, he is..." The gold-eyed man answered almost reluctantly, "Alcorin got to him, too... I don't mean to scare you or anything, but Kyoya's lucky to be alive right now. With the way Alcorin works, I'm surprised he didn't just kill him right away..."

Kakeru was silent on the other end for a few moments, which made Tsubasa worried that he might have accidentally frightened off the other man.  
It was only after several tension filled moments did Kakeru finally answer with a sigh, "Well, my brother's a bit too stubborn to let anyone have their way with him, in every sense of the word..." At this statement, Tsubasa smiled somberly.  
"Yeah, I know." He replied, "I'm just glad he's okay, for now. At this point, there's really no telling what could happen, since we always seem to be one step behind..."

"Why would your guy even come after my brother?..." Kakeru asked in hushed tones, seemingly to not alert anyone that was nearby since the assistant had vaguely stated that he was at the hospital with Kyoya, "Other than the fact that he was trying to help you, why would he?... None of us were finding anything, and I have no idea if Kyoya did or not."  
Tsubasa shook his head slightly, though he knew that Kakeru wouldn't seeing him doing the motion. "I don't think it really matters to him..." The Director said solemnly, "The same kind of thing happened to Dynamis after he revealed that he was getting involved in the whole thing..."

"Is he really _that_ insane?" Kakeru questioned, bewilderment, "I mean, from what Kyoya told me, he sounds like a pretty smart person, even considering what he is... He wouldn't just kill people because they decided to try and help, would he?... Not that I'm trying to justify him or anything, but still, I don't really see any reason behind that..."  
Tsubasa raised an eyebrow slightly, Kakeru's thoughts confusing him slightly since he had been thinking a slightly different way.  
Presumably, Alcorin had previously wanted all of them - or at least Gingka - dead, supposedly because they were getting more involved in the situation than he wanted them too. He had apparently tried to kill Zyro, and had remained unsuccessful, and after he had actually killed Gingka and stuck around for a week so as to not raise any suspicion among them, he left and didn't even bother with them.  
Perhaps because he had gotten what he wanted, and he didn't need to deal with them anymore?  
Tsubasa furrowed eyebrows - that did make sense, but what Kakeru was wondering about did seem to have strong probability to it.  
If Alcorin had really wanted them all dead, it more than likely would've already been done by now. However, it didn't really seem that he cared about them doing anything anymore now that he had killed the redhead they had been trying to save.  
It was also evident with Dynamis's death, now that he thought about it... Maru had mentioned that her and Dynamis had managed to find something of use at the Mist Mountain Shrine - something which only Dynamis had known about at the time and which she was unable to bring back up due to almost everything on her laptop being erased by some unknown source.  
Alcorin had only killed Dynamis then, and, though he had left the young girl to die in there, he really hadn't even bothered with her... Perhaps it wasn't just about Kyoya getting involved that had set off the psychopath, but about the TC Director finding out something that he didn't want anyone getting wind of.

"Director Otori?" Kakeru voiced from the other side of the line, knocking Tsubasa out of his thoughts and back into the real world, where they were fighting against a psychopath and another one of his friends was injured.  
"Now that I think about it..." Tsubasa began almost absently, "Maybe it's _not_ just about him getting involved with this."

"What do you mean?"

"It was the same kind of thing that happened with Dynamis, but I don't know much about..." The silverette explained, turning towards his desk, grabbing a pen out of one of his draws and scrawling a few things down, "I think there might of been something that Kyoya knew about that Alcorin didn't want him to know."

"You think my brother might of figured out something?" Kakeru questioned, his voice quiet but piqued with interest.  
"Yeah." Tsubasa responded, "That, or he was on his way to finding out something that Alcorin didn't want anyone to know... Now that I'm going over it, it seems like it's actually been that way with us over here." Golden eyes scanned over the notes he was writing down, tapping his pen slightly on the paper as he though while simultaneously explaining his thoughts to the young Tategami, "Do you think you would be able to get anything out of Kyoya? Or at least see what he had on his computer?"

"U-um, sure." Kakeru said, sounding slightly confused about the whole thing but still wishing to help, "I can't guarantee anything, but I could try..."

"Great." Tsubasa said in gratitude, letting a hint of a smile come onto his lips, "I appreciate the help, Kakeru. Be safe."

"You too, Director." With those parting words, Kakeru hung up the phone from the other line, and Tsubasa did the same.  
A heavy sigh escaped the man as he took in everything that had happened and had been discussed in that short time, all of it sinking in and making him feel slightly more rejuvenated. It definitely wasn't a good thing that Kyoya was hurt - and the silverette partially blamed himself for that - but this was definitely a lot more information than he had gotten in awhile.  
If Alcorin had gone after Kyoya, then that _should_ mean was something that he hadn't wanted Kyoya, or anybody, to know.  
While it definitely didn't have good consequences on the other's part, it most likely meant that there was something that could help them.  
If Kakeru _could_ indeed find out anything, than that could be a major break for all of them. That thought in mind, Tsubasa knew he had some work to do of his own.  
Golden eyes scanned over the contents of what he had written once more before taking the paper, folding it somewhat unevenly, and tucking it into his shirt pocket.

With most things said and done, Tsubasa got up out of his chair and left his office, new-found motivation coming upon him now that he knew that there was definitely something Alcorin didn't want them, let alone just Kyoya, to know.  
There was work to be done, and he was planning on doing it the right way...

* * *

After several hours of rest on Takanosuke's part, both he and Sakyo had eaten and left Omitama to head out for Ishioka.  
They had left only when Sakyo had been sure that Takanosuke was well rested enough to be able to walk the distance, which had been roughly at about 7:00 in the evening, when the sky was darkening but still with the light of the sun illuminating the world for just a little longer.  
Takanosuke appreciated that the Dragoon Blader was so concerned about it, and kept saying that it wasn't that necessary since he was fine - Sakyo listened to that, of course, but it didn't stop him from being sure.  
The two of them had followed the road through the night, taking it fairly slow since they were both keeping sure that the blonde's health didn't deteriorate any more than it had been, which the Griffin Blader didn't really object too. (He just said it was just tiring walking such distances at such a fast pace, but Sakyo suspected otherwise) It had been a fairly long walk, and by the time they had actually made it to the small area of Ishioka it was almost 6:00 in the morning.  
The two of them were mostly exhausted by them (although Takanosuke was the only one of them who really showed it), and had settled down at a small area that could almost be called a park to rest. Because it had still been dark out, both of were left waiting several hours before the sky began to finally light up and the sun began to rise; Takanosuke had gotten a bit of sleep in that time, while Sakyo seemed to have stayed awake with no problem - however the white-and-red-haired blader could it, Takanosuke knew he might never know.  
It was only when the sun was finally rising over the short buildings and people were out and about either in their cars on the sidewalk did the two of them leave the small park area.  
Considering how small Ishioka was (barely even fit to be called that much of a town, really) both of them had agreed that they shouldn't focus on trying to find somewhere to stay for the night until later - Sakyo had pointed out that the small town probably didn't have a hotel, seeing as how small it was.

Takanosuke knew that meant they were likely going to be left sleeping outside again, but he could deal with it.  
As of now, the two of them walked along the sidewalk, the sun having since risen a bit higher into the sky and making people come out of their homes and do their day's work.  
"Where do you think we should look around here, Sakyo?" Takanosuke questioned, absently looking at his surroundings, trying to pinpoint if he could recognize anything from those blurry images that his brain had given him - they had already passed the sign that showed they were going into Ishioka, so that was crossed off the list.  
Sakyo didn't answer at first, but after a few moments finally spoke, "I'm not sure. This town is small, so there's not too much we can expect."  
Takanosuke knew this was true, and he expected that maybe Sakyo wouldn't have a plan right away. Ishioka was a small place, and why exactly something had been telling him to come here via visions was beyond him; even so, there was the possibility that something could be there, even if the chances weren't very high.  
"What do _you_ think we should do?" Sakyo asked unexpectedly, causing Takanosuke to look up suddenly towards the older blader, seeing cold red eyes fixated on him.

The blonde swallowed thickly, not expecting _Sakyo_ \- of all people - to ask _him_ what they were going to do.  
He was the one who followed Sakyo around, looking up to him as a idol to partially walk in the footsteps of, the one who could help him get even stronger than he already was with his Griffin... However, considering that he had been the one to suggest that they should come to Ishioka in the first place, Sakyo was probably expecting him to have a good reason for it; he did, although the reasoning of 'my visions that I inherited from my grandmother' was a little far-fetched no matter how people looked at it.  
It took a moment for the Griffin Blader to finally remember that Sakyo was looking at him silently, supposedly waiting for what he would say in response to the question; it took several more moments before Takanosuke finally answered, looking forward with his held slightly tilted downward.  
"I don't know..." He said pathetically, "I mean, I saw some things that seemed to say coming here was a good idea, but... I don't know."

Sakyo's gaze remained pinned on the younger blader for a moment before looking forward once more; Takanosuke had explained to him about what his 'foresight' had possibly been showing him before they had left Omitama.  
Even while he still found a little hard to believe, he was willing to trust the blonde's intuition that what his 'visions' were telling him were genuine.  
Things sure were getting weird, to say the least... And as far as he had been able to notice, the smaller boy wasn't having a very good reaction to those visions that he kept having, whatnot with the fainting and the bleeding noses.  
However, as long as they were away from Metal Bey City, the elder knew there really wasn't much he could do for the blonde other than make sure he got plenty of rest and didn't over-exert himself, whether mentally or psychically.  
"We have awhile to figure it out." Sakyo said fairly stoically, his voice firm, "Take your time."

Takanosuke glanced up towards the Dragoon Blader briefly in surprise before lowering his gaze back in front of him. "Okay..." He responded quietly, unsure of what to think of the response. He knew Sakyo was just being nice, but even still... Maybe it was a little irritable that he had driven them both there and not even he knew why.  
The Griffin Blader shook his head slightly at the thought, getting a hold of himself and looking forward to watch where he was going along the sidewalk, though the thoughts of what exactly his visions were telling him did not allow his mind to rest peacefully.  
There had be some logical solution to it; his grandmother - when she was still alive - had told him that the visions of Seers told them of events that were yet to come, whether a few minutes into the future or a few years.  
So, possibly, it had to mean that something was about to happen, right?  
Takanosuke's eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowing slightly in turn as he thought about it, the fact coming to him and confusing him slightly as he put two and two together.  
That was about the only thing that made sense at the moment, considering the situation, so was there really a need to worry about it?

Takanosuke simply sighed, and looked back up from his gaze having wandered to the ground again - that was when his vision went blurry.

The blonde had no idea what had caused it, for his he had been able to see fine just a few seconds before until his vision suddenly swam, so suddenly that he stumbled slightly before feeling himself stop.  
Automatically - as he had been doing several times before - he brought one of his hands up to his head, his vision swimming and making him feel slightly dizzy from the sight of everything suddenly becoming unbalanced.  
Eyes twitching, the blonde saw black spots form in small parts of his vision, seeming to increase and the decrease in size as they appeared and then disappeared.  
His heart pounded in his ears, unsure of what exactly was happening as he willed the dizziness and the blurring to _stop_ , to _not make him go through this again_...

Then, just as soon as it had come to him, it went away.

The swimming blurriness stopped, the dizziness going along with it as his sight finally cleared and allowed him to see clearly once more.  
Slowly did the Griffin Blader lower his hand from his head and look back up, glancing around with cerulean eyes in confusion as to what had just occurred.

"Takanosuke?" Came Sakyo's voice, his tone questioning with a hint of worry in it at noticing that the slightly younger blader had stopped and fallen behind just a bit.  
The blonde looked up towards the elder of the two of them, seeing the redhead looking at him with a cold expression that was dusted with concern that only he could really notice - to anyone else, Sakyo's face would probably just look exactly the same as it usually did.  
"Are you okay?" The red-and-white-haired blader asked, his voice rough but with that familiar tone of worry that only Takanosuke could really recognize.  
"Um... Yeah." The younger of the two responded meekly, feeling slightly dumbfounded and confused about what had happened, even though it seemed have only been a spur of the moment thing for... Whatever reason.  
Sakyo continued to look at him, almost as if watching him as closely as possible for any signs that he might collapse again - it was probably also a little weird that he was still just standing there after giving his answer.  
But instead of walking back up beside the Dragoon Blader so that they could, supposedly, go and cross the street since they were coming up to a sidewalk a few feet away.

Sidewalk...

Takanosuke blinked a few times, the faint memory of what his vision had been showing him coming back to mind almost automatically.  
The blonde glanced around briefly, looking at his surroundings, trying to see if anything looked familiar - this area might not even be relevant in any way, but he knew that he should probably check regardless.  
He really didn't know why he hadn't thought of really paying attention to his visions before now, even though none of them seemed really relevant to anything. However, the ones that he had had the day before seemed to be.  
Cerulean eyes scanned the area around him, looking at the street, which was lightly buzzing with cars going to and fro, the sidewalk littered with people but not enough for it to be crowded. He partially remembered that, but...

There had been something else...

A small building, or something of the sort, with a sign...

He hadn't been sure what it had said, but...

Takanosuke looked up, and gazed over to the other side of the street, diagonally across from where he and Sakyo were standing.  
The Griffin Blader recognized the area in front of him almost immediately, the contents of what he had seen the day before finally taking shape.  
It was indeed a small shop, with a sign that hung over the door to display the name - _Ruri's Teacups_.

Well, perhaps it was worth a shot, wasn't it?...

* * *

White lips silently cursed as he stalked his ways through the semi-dark halls and corridors of his domain, clearly not in the happiest state that he could be.  
After his failure with Kyoya, who could really blame him?  
If his damned younger brother had not shown his face, he would already be on a one way trip to the morgue, half of his bones crushed from the fall that he should've taken from that window. However, as displeased as he was with it, he knew what mistakes he had made.  
He should've just killed him on the spot, rather than play with him, even though that would have been much less fun.  
He had simply not counted on Kakeru showing up nor suspecting anything, and that had most certainly been his downfall in that situation.  
But despite understanding what went wrong there, he was still very displeased with how that had turned out, a frown on his usually smiling lips and red eyes glowing faintly with their usual glow, but evidently outlined by quiet anger.

His footsteps echoed around him in an almost endless symphony as he made his way to his destination, the only other place he went in search of some sort of comfort - even if that comfort was brought on in a twisted way.  
Eventually, as always, he found himself at the stairs that lead up into that great hall where he kept his dear brother; a body that was alive but clearly unresponsive. The moment he reached the top of the stairs, he felt the aura that filled most of the room, seeming to grow every time he came here, melting away the anger and filling him with a twisted joy that only someone in his shoes could fully understand.  
But unlike before, where the aura had struck him and made him stop in his tracks, he continued forward, his movements slower now and his booted footsteps echoing softly in the chamber unlike they previously had.  
Slowly, a small smile crept onto his lips, something that could've been sweet at one time, but was now nothing short of unsettling. His robes dragged and fluttered gently behind him as he walked to the other side of the room, walking perfectly in between the pillars that lined it and supposedly supported the stone roof above the two of them.

It wasn't long before the albino stood there in front of the other, who sat there lifelessly with no way to acknowledge that he was even there at all - but really, he couldn't really bring himself to care about that, just as long as he was here.  
The aura that filled most of them was almost overpowering.  
Weak, yes, but overwhelming all the same. A small giggle escaped from white lips, a sound that was filled with a terrifying joy that nobody would ever be able to forget once they heard it.  
But of course, how could he expect any less in the state that he was in?

"I must admit, your _friends_ certainly are quite bothersome." The albino said with distaste, knowing very well that Gingka could not hear him, but unable to bring himself to care, "Including those Legendary Bladers you're so associated with... They really don't know when to quit, now do they?..." Crimson red eyes narrowed, that accursed smile still in place as a part of his expression.  
"They're quite like you, as I notice." He continued, "The problem is... They just don't know when enough is enough. And sooner or later... They _all_ end up like little Dynamis did.. Of course, I suppose I can't really blame them." The white-haired psychopath knelt down slightly, balancing himself with one knee placed on the small space between the redhead's legs and his other foot placed on the ground behind him, "I suppose they do care about you, after all... But the thing is, they don't know you for your sins like I do. And if they were to pay to those... Well... You should know how they would react."  
Alcorin lifted his left hand and placed it against the other's cheek, white skin just standing out against the fair complexion that had always been Gingka's.  
His thumb gently caressed the skin, a small chuckle sounding from his throat as he looked at his only flesh and blood with a love that was reasonable, yet unforgivable all the same.

"I've waited too long to be here with you, brother dear... I won't let anyone jeopardize it _again_..." The last word was hissed out in clear displeasure at the thought, that smile disappearing from his face for a moment before returning.  
"No matter which one of you I have..." The albino began, pressing his lips against Gingka's cloth-covered forehead briefly, "...I love you all the same."  
Gingka gave no reaction, his half-lidded golden-brown eyes staring forehead blankly, as though no soul had inhabited his body for a long time - but of course, Alcorin expected no less.  
With that, Alcorin stood, the thoughts of his failures of killing Kyoya gone from his mind at the moment, and leaving him with nothing but the sickening love he had for the redhead in front of him.  
However, he did not move from where he stood, looking down at the fading exterior of his sibling with a solemn expression.

He knew he was there.

Through the stifling aura that filled the room, Alcorin knew that _he_ was there...

A presence that he barely recognized, that stood there, watching him with eyes so like his own...

He wasn't entirely sure how long he had been there, but he was definitely there.

There, but not whole - so dearly incomplete, yet still with a individual form.

For many moments, the albino simply stood there, feeling him standing just a few feet behind himself, watching him silently, with an aura that would have brought fear into the heart of any normal human being - but Alcorin was not human.  
Not entirely, at least.  
A small chuckle sounded from his throat, the psychopath slowly shaking his head and making his white hair move slightly along with him before the sound coming from him developed into that unholy giggle that never ceased to make its way into the head's of others.  
Eventually, a small laugh escaped him, and he brought a hand up to his mouth in response as though to muffle it, but he did no such thing.  
His laughter - almost like that of a child's - continued on for what could have been moments or hours before it slowly died down.  
Taking a small breath in, the albino smiled almost sweetly, his eyes training themselves forward with their demonic glow before he finally spoke.

"I suppose it's amusing to you..." He said, red orbs sweeping off to the side as though to look over his shoulder, "Isn't it?" There was no answer, for he never got one from either of them - but he didn't expect one, anyway.


	25. Chapter 24 - Hopeless Remnants

Chapter 24 - Hopeless Remnants

* * *

Although Tithi had agreed to call Kyoya back if he managed to find something in the Mist Mountain Shrine (albeit reluctantly), he knew that he very likely wouldn't be. He truly didn't know what exactly he was looking for, or even what had really been happening over in Japan (as Kyoya had previously mentioned) for the CEO to ask such a thing of him, so the chances of him actually calling him back were slim to none.  
As far as he knew, something big was happening over in Japan with Tsubasa, something that Dynamis had supposedly been involved in - at least, that was what it had sounded like when Kyoya had contacted him again after seeming to have a talk with the WBBA Director over on the other side of the world.  
The news of Dynamis's death sure seemed to strike something once Kyoya had asked him and he had answered. The young man wouldn't have really thought beforehand that something big was happening after he had found Dynamis's body; maybe it was simply because he hadn't been able to care about anything else once he found his friend.  
He hadn't known why exactly Dynamis had died - he still didn't know, and he wasn't sure he really wanted to - but somehow it seemed to be connected to whatever it was that was happening over in Japan.  
He supposed, for Dynamis's sake, he could at least try and do as Kyoya had asked.

As of now, he found himself wandering the many halls that made up the Mist Mountain Shrine, the darkness barely illuminated by an natural light that seemed to always be there, just grazing the walls and not allowing complete darkness, pale blue eyes casting their sorrowful gaze upon the many inscriptions and other such prophecies that littered the stone walls.  
Many were in languages that Tithi weren't even sure still existed in modern society, while others were in simply made up of pictures that had been long-weathered since their creation. There was only a handful were actually in languages he knew, even if he wasn't fluent in them - however, none of them bore any relation to something that would probably be important, unless Tsubasa and the others in Japan were having some form of conflict with seraphs.  
Letting out a heavy sigh that echoed in the almost unnatural silence, Tithi continued on and looked to keep his spirits up, since he knew that may be the advice Dynamis would have given him in this situation.  
Whatever the Guardian had died for, the Legendary Blader would try and assure that it would not all be in vain. Considering that Dynamis seemed to somehow be connected to whatever was happening Kyoya, Tsubasa, and the others, the purple-haired boy reasoned that the Guardian had been killed for a reason, rather than just reckless rampage.  
Tithi knew for a fact that, although the world had seen and heard of them all as the Legendary Bladers that had helped in the fight against Nemesis 7 years ago, nobody really knew that Dynamis had even existed up to his death most recently, so it was highly unlikely that just some random person could have done that to the Jupiter Blader.

Nobody was even really aware, but for a handful of people that the former Guardian had deemed as worthy, even knew about the Mist Mountain Shrine, so any chances that it _wasn't_ something possibly otherworldly were completely off the checklist.  
That in mind, he had at least had some sort of key subject that he was looking for within the Temple, even though it was vague.

In the continuation of Tithi's search, it wasn't very long before he came back to the large chamber of where he had found Dynamis's decaying corpse, the hall silent but still echoing with events of the past that were far out of the purple-haired boy's reach.  
Although his stomach lurched uneasily, he was somehow able to ignore the faint stench of death that still remained, his eyes just barely glancing towards the gradually fading chalk words on the floor before moving back to the many walls and pillars that surrounded him, blue orbs tracing the etchings in the stone like a pencil.  
This was the last place Dynamis had been in before he had died, so he reasoned that it had to have meant something...

Perhaps he had found something here?

That or he had found something elsewhere and he had simply been killed here after...

Tithi knew he would never be able to understand the full story of what had happened here while he had been away, but that was fine, because he really didn't need it.  
All he needed to do now was search the Mist Mountain Shrine to see if it contained _anything_ that could remotely be helpful, at Kyoya's request, even if he didn't know exactly what it was about. The dark-skinned male sighed through his nose, his footsteps halting as he stood there in silence, pale blue eyes half-lidded as he starred at the rough stone floor for a moment.  
He had no idea what exactly was going on outside the walls of Mist Mountain, but he knew it wasn't good... Agreeing to look for anything may have very well been a mistake in itself, if what had happened to Dynamis was anything but go by, and he knew that he could very well meet a similar fate.  
However, he really didn't care all that much about it.  
He was young, yes, but he had lost most of everything that he really had, which really was only a handful of things.  
The Legendary Blader knew very well he was probably putting his life on the line for this, but, really, what did he have to lose? For Dynamis's sake, it was enough.

The purplette looked around from where he was standing, looking at walls off to his right and the pillars on his left, all littered with inscriptions and drawings that he had a difficult time making out, both because of the darkness and the many languages they were written in.  
Observant eyes looked over the many details that were carved into the walls, only able to catch a few words but unable to understand the rest.  
Broad shoulders set, Tithi walked forward a bit, scanning the walls and pillars around him for anything that he could understand, that may prove useful...  
Just as his eyes looked over the wall on his right again, the pale orbs caught something that was familiar too him, drawing his attention towards a large kind of tablet on the wall, engraved and in-scripted as everything else was.  
A small high-rise lead up to it, nothing more than 4 stairs, as though it was something far greater than most.  
Tithi knew, however, that that was just the way the temple was designed, and that it probably didn't mean too much - but simply because he was able to understand what it was saying did he think that it might actually be symbolic. The purple-haired blader climbed the four simple stairs, standing on the high-rise in front of the in-scripted wall behind him, his eyes scanning over the markings and drawings engraved centuries ago.  
Simply standing there seemed almost surreal, something like an aura remaining there, like a soul that still believed that it belonged there, standing where he was standing, reading the messages that it had probably never finished. Out of all of the prophecies and messages lining the walls of the Shrine, this was one of the few that Tithi was able to understand.

It was in Arabic - his mother tongue.

He had remembered teaching Dynamis a bit of the language some years back as repayment for teaching him what he had known thus far. It hadn't been a lot, but it had been enough to get the Guardian by should he ever have a need to use the language - Tithi doubted that he ever did.  
But even so, his mind wasn't focused on the fact that he could understand what was written, or on the strange air that filled this small space of a rise, but on the actual contents of what was there.

It told of Nemesis, the God of Destruction.

Like an origin story, it told of his creation, (or at least what was presumed to have created him) his many abilities that ranged surprisingly to lengths beyond just 'destruction', his story of being sealed away centuries ago by the ancestors of the Solar System Bladers... Tithi furrowed his purple eyebrows against his dark skin as he took all of it in as he read, unsure of what exactly to make of everything it was telling him.  
It was definitely good for some form of history lesson, but what did it really do to help?...  
It probably wasn't very likely that they were dealing with anything Nemesis-related back in Japan.  
After all, Gingka Hagane had destroyed the God years ago with no trace of that darkness left behind.  
Supposedly, anyway.

Even still, he supposed there was a possibility, but what good would this do when it really didn't anything about something prophetic that could give him a clue?  
All it was was a backstory, an origin, a religion that barely existed anymore, a telling of what the God had been capable of when he had still existed. There wasn't anything blatantly obvious in any of it that would possibly help, unless something was written in code, though it was doubtful that anyone would have thought to do that at all for seemingly no reason.  
Still, it was intriguing, to say the least.  
Once the young blader reached the bottom of the tale, he skimmed back up it again all the way to the top, his broad shoulders heaving slightly as he exhaled through his nose in silence.

Three brothers...

Weird story, for a God that didn't exist anymore, and had never truly been acknowledged all that much.  
Keeping it in a corner of his mind, Tithi turned around and walked down the high-rise, continuing on through the grand chamber filled with stories that he barely understand.  
And almost with a snap of one's fingers, the aura that he originally felt where he had been standing was gone...

* * *

After his call to Tsubasa, Kakeru had waited about an hour (or was it ten minutes?...) before going to older brother's room.  
The doctors had told him that he could see him whenever he wanted beforehand, so he knew it wouldn't be a problem when he went in, considering he was family and all. Goosebumps had automatically coated his skin a shiver ran through him at the sight that he had never thought he would see of his brother; an oxygen mask over his mouth, hooked up to an IV and monitor that showed his heartbeat, blood pressure, and vitals, indicating that he was, indeed, still stable. The doctor had already told him of the extent of Kyoya's injuries, which had seemingly been some form of strangulation - although they were unable to find any bruising -, and minor head trauma that had given him a concussion.  
However, the doctor had said that they had taken care of it and that it shouldn't cause any further complications with his healing process.  
While Kakeru was able to take at least some sort of comfort from that, the sight of seeing his brother so beaten up, so... vulnerable... ( _that word doesn't suit him..._ ) and hooked up to machines and drips was very unsettling. Kyoya was a very prideful person; stubborn, persuasive, devious, and Kakeru had only ever really known him to be just that.

Even with running their company as young he was, his brother had never cracked under the pressure and remained solid - or at least as far as he knew, since Kyoya would more than likely never allow him to see him cry simply because he was an older sibling, and that was usually how it was supposed to work.  
The sight in front of him was like looking at a completely different person, and Kakeru subconsciously kept wondering if he was indeed in the right room.

However, he was.

There was no denying it.

Letting out a breath through his nose, and a small, almost uncontrollable shiver, Kakeru walked stiffly over to a chair against the wall and pulled it over to beside Kyoya's bed, adjusting it properly so that he would be able to face the elder.  
The room was cold, almost uncomfortably so, but the younger greenette brushed it off as he sat down in the barely comfortable chair, his blue eyes never leaving his brother's hospitalized form, his brows unconsciously turned upwards in worry and his bottom lip narrowly tucked under his upper one.  
He had told Tsubasa that would try to get something out of his brother if he could about what he had been researching before he was attacked, and he did plan on fulfilling his promise, but he knew that also came with complications.  
He would have to wait for Kyoya to wake up, and judging from his concussion and the brief blocking of his airway, that might not be for quite awhile.  
Kyoya's doctor had also warned him that his brother could also develop amnesia, which Kakeru knew himself was a very liable after-effect of a concussion, even if only minor. Although he was sure that Kyoya would pull out of it fine (he was too stubborn not to) he was still greatly worried about the aftermath of what could happen.

After all, if that... Alcorin... had come after him even though he hadn't found out anything - although he may have been close - then there was no telling what could happen if they continued on with their search. However, he _had_ promised, even if indirectly, and he usually liked to keep his promises so that he wouldn't disappoint the other party.  
Besides, he was fairly sure that Kyoya would still wish for it regardless.  
Twining his fingers in his lap, Kakeru simply sat there in silence but for the beeping of the heart monitor and the quiet bustling of doctors and nurses and visitors outside. He looked down, the chill of the room nipping at him lightly as he sat there with a loss on what to do, knowing that it would likely be awhile before his older brother would wake up.  
Maybe he should have waited a little longer outside... The few fellows at the office who had arrived after he had gotten to the hospital with his brother could have kept him a bit of company for awhile, even if he wasn't that willing to join in on the conversation.  
Even staying out there by himself and listening to the noise of his surroundings might have been better than just sitting and listening to the empty _beep_ of the machine Kyoya was hooked up it.

He probably could have checked on Mura too... She had come to the hospital as well, and had simply been placed in the main room of the Trauma Bay so that her injuries could be treated. As far as Kakeru had seen, said injuries were nothing but a series of scratches across a majority of her body, and, although she had been unconscious upon arrival ever since they had left the TC building, he didn't doubt that she would be fine.  
However, thinking back to the fact that she had been possessed was something that couldn't help but unsettle him, and made him rethink the previous thought that she would be 'fine'. He didn't know, and for a brief time, he hadn't really cared - he had mainly been worried about Kyoya.

He should go check... Or at least ask about her...

The young greenette sighed in frustration of it all, hunching over slightly and brushing part of his bangs out of his face, even though they didn't need to be. He was probably just making everything sound harder than it actually was.  
He knew how things worked - he could just ask one of the doctors or nurses how Mura was doing, and they could probably find out and tell him or find someone else who could. Kakeru let out a breath through his nose, moving back to sit up properly once more and compose himself.  
It was right then did a soft groan reach his ears, a sound that he knew all to well to ever mistake it for something else.

Immediately did his eyes flash to his brother, who still lay there motionless but for his breathing and barely noticeable flutter of his eyelashes.  
In an instant was Kakeru standing beside his brother's bed, his hands on the small railing that were always on them as he looked into his brother's face hopefully, watching carefully for any further sign that he was waking up.  
Another soft sound escaped Kyoya's lips, slightly muffled by the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.

Kakeru just stared at him, barely even breathing.

Slowly, eyelids fluttering in weakness, Kyoya opening his eyes just about halfway, the blue orbs slightly dazed and hazy from awakening from a concussion-induced sleep. A small smile automatically made it's way onto Kakeru's face, watching his brother's face intently as those dazed eyes looked over towards him.  
For several moments he waited in silence, his heart pounding in his chest and barely allowing him to breathe as he looked for some sign of recognition from his older brother, praying that _he's alright..._ Kakeru's heart leapt into his throat when, only seconds later, a weak smile made its way onto his lips (slightly hidden by the oxygen mask) and his eyes took on a fond look to them.  
"..'Ey..." Kyoya said softly, his voice weak but still with something behind it that perhaps Kakeru could only hear. Either way, the younger Tategami almost broke down, eyes filling up with tears that he was reluctant to let fall.  
"Kyoya!" He exclaimed happily, immediately giving his brother a loose hug over his chest, being careful not to disturb the wires and tubes he was hooked up to.

"You're okay..." He stated shakily, burying his face lightly into the crook of his brother's neck as he let the tears fall silently. Kakeru felt a hand come up and place itself on his back, lightly rubbing small circles to soothe him and his light sobs.  
"..Y'thought I wouldn't be?.." Kyoya asked playfully in his weak tone, the 'hissing' sound of his breathing mask making his face sound slightly disoriented. However, Kakeru paid no attention to it as he remained there for a few moments, minutes, hours, who knew how long before pulling away and wiping at his eyes with his sleeve.  
"Sorry..." The younger Tategami apologized lamely, unable to help the tears that came to his eyes anyway after wiping them, "I was just... I was worried, that's all." Vision slightly blurry, Kakeru blinked and almost couldn't bring himself to look back into his brother's face, even with how happy he was - maybe it was a little ridiculous being so overjoyed, since he knew that Kyoya probably would've pulled through fine no matter how bad things had been, but...

"'S okay." Kyoya said softly, a reassuring tone in his low voice that brought the younger's eyes back to him at last. Although Kyoya was clearly groggy from the morphine the doctor's had given him, he was obviously coherent enough to express a clear look of reassurance.  
Sniffing softly, Kakeru wiped at one of his eyes with his wrist again, willing himself not to start crying again as he tried to focus on what he needed to ask his older brother. "K-Kyoya..." The younger man began somewhat shakily, "You... You remember everything that happened before you passed out, right?" Kyoya made a soft sound, blinking for a moment and remaining silent, his brows furrowing together slightly as though he was trying to recall something.  
For those few precious seconds, Kakeru couldn't help but hold his breath.  
"Yeah... If bein' choked against a window by a psychopath is s'posed to be the last thing I remember..." The Legendary Blader said tiredly, exhaling heavily against the mask covering his mouth and nose and making a heavy 'hissing' sound.  
Kakeru let out a breath of relief, feeling his lungs metaphorically give thanks for being allowed to take in air once more. "Oh, thank god..." He breathed with a sigh, relief flooding over him as he took in the fact that his brother was fine... He remembered everything, _he's okay_...

Kyoya made a soft wheezing sound, which Kakeru could only guess was a small laugh since that was what it sounded the most like. "..Yeah, well..." The CEO said lightly, "...After going through something like that, I don't think I'm going to forget much... Obviously, Tsubasa doesn't seem to be getting it this bad.." Kakeru knew the last part was meant to be said with amusement despite Kyoya's low and gravely voice, so he simply smiled a little.  
"Um, yeah..." He agreed awkwardly, "About that... Kyoya, if you don't mind me asking, did you actually find out anything that could've helped Director Otori before.. _He_.. Attacked you?" Kyoya - who had momentarily looked away - turned his gaze back towards his younger brother at this question, blinking slowly and remaining silent before answering.  
"No..." He replied, "..But I'm pretty sure I was on my way to finding something that he didn't like... I had an idea of what to look for and a way to look for it, and obviously he didn't approve of that..."

"What was it?" Kakeru asked, eyebrows furrowed as he watched his brother closely as to assure that he didn't show any signs of pushing himself too much - he had just woken up, and it wouldn't be a good thing if he strained himself, even if not physically.  
"Mm... Do you have a pen and paper?.." The older asked.  
"One sec..." Kakeru replied, digging into one of his pockets and pulling out a small notepad that he carried around with him should he ever had a need for it, then taking out a mechanical pen from the pocket of his shirt and clicking it so that he would be able to write with it.  
Hovering the tip over the pad of paper, Kakeru looked back towards his brother. "Go ahead." He said gently, ready to listen to whatever Kyoya had to say...

* * *

When Director Hideyoshi had sent Naomi on a task to discover the device their seemingly deleted file had been brought up to, he knew that she knew that he likely didn't really need the results to know what had happened.  
Of course, he had no way of saying what the purpose had been, and no way of knowing what exactly had happened either, but he didn't need any of those things to know where it had gotten too. Of course, it was a suspicion, but considering the past circumstances and events, he wouldn't be surprised if he was right.  
However, he would be sure to get the results either way, just to confirm whether or not he was right - and, though he didn't entirely consider himself arrogant, he hardly doubted that he was wrong. He had been around for a long time, and in his line of work, he had discovered and solved many puzzles that normally people would give up on otherwise.  
He was a very observant man, and he knew treason - whatever the form - when he saw it. Surely, he couldn't have thought that he would simply be able to get away with something like that and go unnoticed, had he?  
Surely not, he was smarter than that.  
Maybe Hideyoshi had underestimated him in more ways than one, considering all the years in between, but he would likely never know.  
On the brighter side, if it was indeed as he suspected, than that could definitely lead them into a direction that they had been unable to go for many years. Because, surely, it couldn't just be an accident, now could it?

Hideyoshi pondered this to himself as he strolled almost casually down one of the many hallways of the large building known as their Headquarters, the muffled sounds of workers and bickering from the many rooms and areas he passed sounding dully in his ears while he took no real interest.  
They were simply doing what they had to do, like all of them did, and that was that.  
Unless there was something that required his attention and needed his word for something, none of it currently had to be any of his concern. As of right now, his only concern was of the final results of where that deleted file had been at, and what all of it could mean for their research, whether for better or for worse.

"Director." A tight voice called out to him in a firm tone, and Hideyoshi had no need to turn around to know who it was after working with her for so long.  
However, he did anyway out of sheer habit, his dark eyes settling on the form of Naomi coming up to him from down the hall, her Ipad tucked under one arm while several papers with clutched firmly in her opposite hand.  
"Hello, Naomi." Hideyoshi greeted politely, a cunning gleam in his eyes that was clearly reflected more so by his glasses, "Did you manage to get those results I requested yesterday?"

"I did." The brunette responded, standing now only 3 feet away from the Director, and rearranging the position of everything in her arms so that she could skim over the papers in her hands one last time, "We had some minor difficulty when tracing it, considering it was deleted, but we managed to discover the device it was last brought up on."

"And?" Hideyoshi questioned with a raised eyebrow, a clear gesture of what he wanted. Turning the papers upside down, Naomi offered them to the older man, to which he gratefully took and immediately looked over.  
His eyes read over the several sheets, and his suspicions were confirmed. The last known device the deleted file had been brought up to was the Senji Model 1.5.  
The computer system that they had given Ayano and Sichiro to their work and profiling on when they had been there.  
Of course, how could he have expected anything else?

"Was there any video footage of when this happened?" He asked out of sheer curiosity rather than an actual need for it.  
"No." Naomi replied bluntly, "We recovered what we could, but everything from the time stamps of 9:04 and 9:26 is slightly corrupted and shows nothing by the same screen cap for a good 20 minutes before it goes back to regular video." Hideyoshi raised an eyebrow, still looking over the papers in his hands for a moment before moving his eyes up to his most trusted assistant.  
"Is that so?" He questioned curiously, "Well then, perhaps we have a problem with our camera system then..."

( _eyes narrowed_ )

Naomi said nothing to this, because she knew him well enough to know that he didn't honestly believe those words. Their security system was in top notch condition, the last she had checked - they assured that it was put under maintenance regularly to assure that there would be no malfunctioning with it.  
The only thing that could disrupt their video and audio feeds, even if unintentionally, was...

"Well, then." Hideyoshi said with some vigor, "This could definitely be an interesting turn of events, don't you agree?" Naomi stood straight, looking up at the older man through her own square-rimmed glasses.  
"What will you have us do, Director?" She asked, her expression stoic and hard as it had always been.  
"Hmmm..." The Director hummed softly, seeming to think over his decision for a moment, "... I would like you dispatch a group to Metal Bey City as soon as possible. And I want to only consist of some of our most trusted and observant personnel, for I don't want any mistakes. I'll give further instructions once you've brought them together."  
Naomi simply nodded in a stiff manner. "Of course, Director." She said obediently.  
"Alright, then, I'll leave you to it." The blue-eyed man said almost dismissively, giving the okay that she was free to go. Naomi simply nodded and walked off at a brisk pace to follow her given instructions.

Meanwhile, Hideyoshi remained where he was, still holding the papers Naomi had given him in his hands even with no further need to look at them.  
As he stood there, he couldn't help but smile slyly to himself.  
Of course, he had hardly needed the results to determine who had done the deed of deleting a file that they had barely paid attention too in the last few years, for it would be plainly obvious to anyone who knew that man's past and the dark secrets that inhabited it.  
After all, he himself was a very observant man, and it came as no surprise that he would have done something such as this. And unfortunately for him - for whatever reason he had deleted the file for - things would not go the way that he had seemingly hoped.  
Still smiling, Hideyoshi turned and continued on his way down the hallway at his original pace, though now on a much different course from the information that he now had.  
It would be wise to conduct their search as soon as they could manage, and execute it with drawing as little attention to themselves as well.  
But that wouldn't be too difficult - after all, they had done it for as long as he could remember. However, perhaps this would prove much more helpful to them than most things in the last 14 years.

( _eyes closed_ )


	26. Chapter 25 - Right Track, Wrong Track

Chapter 25 - Right Track, Wrong Track

* * *

The small chime of bell connected to the door rang as it was opened, the sound so casual and well-known that it barely drew the eyes of anyone but the clerk at the counter as to see who had just entered his or her shop.  
As they entered, however, Takanosuke's eyes were briefly drawn to the gentle alarm, even though they normally wouldn't be. However, with his slightly delirious state (from all the little blackouts he'd been having) it could probably be considered as fairly reasonable.

Sakyo entered the shop behind the blonde, holding the door once the Griffin Blader let go of it to allow himself to get fully inside before looking around with his crimson eyes.  
As the sign above the door - which had clearly read _Ruri's Teacups_ \- indicated, it was a teacup shop.  
Small, but definitely capable of fitting all of its contents, which mainly consisted of teacups (of course), small teapots, and other fine china that one would more than likely use when serving tea to anyone - whether themselves or others. Many cups and teacups and small plates were grouped together in different sets, all matching with modest and delicate designs painted onto them with the gentlest of care. Looking sideways to one of the shelves on his left, red eyes scanned the few teacups and plates that were situated there and figured that they were hand-painted.  
If so, then they were definitely well made with what looked to be professional craftsmanship. He wasn't an expert on any of it, really, but he knew enough to know good china when he saw it.

Once closing the door behind him (and the hearing the bell once more ring in response), the Dragoon Blader glanced down at the blonde head of Takanosuke, watching as the younger blader looked around a bit, taking in his surroundings (which consisted mainly of tea sets and the like) and waving a hello to the clerk at the front desk when she said hello, before turning to his left and walking around the small space of the shop, looking around at the many intricate cups and teapots placed on the various shelves.  
They were the only two in there but for a lovely looking elderly couple who went over to the front desk to pay for a teapot with a cherry blossom design on it.  
There must have been some reason why his visions had brought them here, so Takanosuke figured. He seemed to be having them for a reason, just as his grandmother had always had them, and so he knew that they wouldn't just drive him to a place as subtle and nice as this for no particular reason.

Still... The china was very nice.  
So at least that was something to admire.

While he maneuvered around the shelves a bit, looking at the seemingly hand-made china, Sakyo stood mainly near the front, only taking a few steps forward to gaze almost motionlessly at a shelf near the door.  
Neither of them were sure of what exactly this shop could offer in terms of getting them anywhere, but it might as well be worth it to simply try if nothing else.  
If the idea hadn't come from Takanosuke, Sakyo might not have even considered it a possibility. But he trusted the young blonde, which was more than enough.  
Surely, if Takanosuke's supposed 'visions' had lead them there, then there may indeed be something... Of course, getting any information on how to find a half-god psychopath in a teacup shop was very unlikely.  
But whatever the reason they were brought here, there _should_ be something, shouldn't there?

"Are you two finding everything okay?" The clerk from the counter asked once the elderly couple left with their teapot wrapped in paper and placed in a bag, her dull green eyes looking back and forth between the two of them almost casually.  
"Oh, uh..." Takanosuke started awkwardly at the unexpected question from the young woman, before simply smiling a little sheepishly and nodding, "Y-yeah, we're fine." The salesclerk raised an eyebrow slightly at the blonde, noting his slightly awkward response, before glancing over towards Sakyo, who she appeared to assume would be the one in charge out of the two of them.  
Said redhead caught her eyes with his red ones, and, somehow in a bit of a more relaxed position of standing (perhaps just for show, but either way...), simply nodded, assuring that they were indeed finding everything they needed. Of course, that was a lie, but she had no need to know that.  
She was just a salesclerk making an honest living, and clearly didn't need any trouble. Taking his word for it, the young woman simply smiled with a small shrug before walking briskly over to the backroom behind the counter.  
Takanosuke's eyes remained on her for a few more moments before exhaling through his mouth and looking towards Sakyo.  
Said Blader briefly caught his gaze, but didn't keep it for long as he went back to looking at a few at the teacups on the shelf in front of him. Takanosuke furrowed his eyebrows slightly, unsure of what they were going to do.  
There didn't seem to be too much here save for china, a small bit of silverware, and a kind woman who made an honest living off of it.

Maybe she knew something?

If so, then that could possibly be a logical explanation as to why his visions had brought them here... However, she didn't look like a person who could likely know to much on anything revolving around the God of Destruction and wherever his offspring could be.  
Then again, who knew?  
His grandmother had always told him to never judge a book by its cover, when she had still been around. Even if she did - and that was a big if - how would they even get anything out of her? It wasn't like you could just start a conversation about the God of Destruction (i.e. the one that had been destroyed years ago) and have it run along smoothly.  
Well, maybe somewhere you could, but Takanosuke didn't really know where on earth that could be.  
If they were going to be able to find out anything from here, then they would need a plan on how to do that.

Cerulean eyes almost immediately glanced back to Sakyo when he heard something from over in his direction, and saw that the older blader was now gently one of the many teacups on the shelves in his hands. It was a nice ivory color, with blue and green designs painted on it from the base up, but not touching the rim.  
The Dragoon Blader almost seemed to be eyeing weirdly, his gaze (although almost stoic) making it look like he was thinking briefly of something while his eyes lingered.

"Did you make these yourself?" Sakyo questioned, his eyes looking over to the woman behind the counter who was setting a small box onto the wooden surface.  
Her eyes looked over to the red-and-white-haired blader to perhaps assure that he was talking to her, before she smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I did." She said with a little pride, taking a few things wrapped in tissue paper out from the cardboard box in front of her, "I learned how to make them at an art school I went to a few years back. People seemed to like them a lot, so I decided to make a business out of it."

"They're nice." Takanosuke complimented with a smile, which earned one back in return.  
"Thank you." The woman - who they could only guess was Ruri, as the shop name implied - said in gratitude with a small blush dusting her cheeks.  
She unwrapped some more of the china she had made from the tissue paper that it had been wrapped in - they seemed to all be teacups with relatively the same design on each other them, probably a part of a set - before looking back to the two of them.  
"I don't remember seeing you two around here before." She said in an almost curious manner, opening up the shelf below her to put the teacups on a display behind the glass, "Are you new in town?"

"Visiting." Sakyo said almost immediately before Takanosuke could. Well, that wasn't entirely a lie. They kind of were visiting Ishioka, 'sight-seeing' in a sense, considering that they were looking for anything that could give them possible leads on the guy they were looking for.  
"Really?" Ruri asked with a raised eyebrow, crouching down behind the counter to neatly place the teacups on display in there, "I didn't think anybody would want to visit a town like this... We're hardly on maps at all, there's not to see... Not to mention with those... Weird stories that my grandpa always told me.."  
Sakyo eyed her for a moment at that, walking over to the counter with the teacup that he was still holding in hand. Takanosuke glanced at him questionably, wondering why the elder was carrying the teacup with him to the counter.

Did he plan on buying it?

Did Sakyo have a thing for teacups?

Maybe that was a bit of a stretch, but...

"What kind of stories?" Sakyo asked, gingerly placing the cup in his hands on the counter by the cash register.  
"Well, I don't really know what he was talking about half of the time..." Ruri said with a small sigh, finishing putting the cups in the cabinet before standing up and locking it with her keys again, "He was an old coot, either way, but... He was interesting to say the least. Some of the things he told me about this town were too. He was always talking about something to do with that mountain to the West of town... Mount Tsukuba... There's this old rumor that's surrounded it for god knows how long."  
The shop-owner walked over to the counter to face the two of them, her full, light brown hair bouncing slightly along with her movements, and gently the teacup that Sakyo was holding in her own hands, eyeing with observant green orbs.

"Nice choice." She complimented, "Do you want the cup by itself, or the full set with it? If you buy the full set, there's about a 20% discount with it until the 23rd."

"Just the cup." Sakyo said simply, and Ruri nodded in response.  
"Okay." She said, observing the cup for a few more moments before turning towards the register.  
"What were saying about that mountain?" Sakyo asked, acting at least somewhat casual despite his cold aura and hard features.  
"Oh yeah, where was I on that?..." Ruri questioned almost no one, before nodding, "Oh, right, that story... Well, my grandpa always said that there was a rumor about it containing some sort of temple or something... It was built a long time ago for the worship of some god of another. Not exactly sure which god, but the way he described it, sounded _a lot_ like a cult."

"Really?..." Takanosuke asked almost absently, watching the way she wrapped the teacup in tissue paper and got out a small decorative box for it to go in, "Where was it, exactly?..." Ruri simply shrugged her shoulders with a small half-smile, making sure that their teacup was safely wrapped as she placed it in the box.  
"Not sure, but, as far as I know, the entrance to it is somewhere in the mountains... You can ask almost anyone in town; pretty well everyone knows about it, but no one knows exactly where it is.." The brunette shrugged softly, waiting for Sakyo to scan his credit card. "Might as well stay that way, as far as I'm concerned. Never did sound like anything good to me... Especially with the sounds that people say they hear coming from there every now and then." While Sakyo made the transaction, Takansouke raised his eyebrows slightly.  
"What sounds?" He asked, curiosity evident on his face. Ruri quirked her eyebrow for a moment, as if thinking, before she simply shrugged softly once more.  
"Like, laughing, I think..." She said, sounding a bit unsure, "Some say that they sometimes see something white wandering around the mountain, or that a bunch of are always coming and going from there. It's just some talk to get some attention, I don't really know..."

"So, it's, like, haunted or something?..." Takanosuke asked, tilting his head slightly. He knew that probably wasn't the case, but he wanted to know what she thought regardless.  
"I don't know..." The saleswoman replied almost wistfully, "But I'll be honest... Considering all the weird stuff that _supposedly_ surrounds this town, ghosts would not surprise me. Might give me a reason to buy more salt though." The debit machine beeped at the completed transaction, and Ruri smiled at the two of them as Sakyo put away his card and handed them the box. "Thank you." She said gratefully, "You two have a nice day. And keep an eye out for those ghosts." She added at the end with a small wink, earning a small smile from Takanosuke as he took the box with their teacup and followed Sakyo to the door.

"Thank you!" He called back to her before leaving, the door bell chiming in their wake. Ruri simply smiled to herself.  
What nice brothers they seemed to be...

* * *

Both Takanosuke and Sakyo left the small teacup shop with their box in hand, rounding the corner until they were a good few meters from it before stopping and stepping out of the way of anybody who would be passing down the side of the street.  
"She seemed nice." Takanosuke commented with a small smile on his face.  
"Yes." Sakyo agreed almost absently, as though he wasn't fully concentrated on her kindness - Takanosuke knew he wasn't really, and that he himself shouldn't necessarily be either, but he felt it was nice to acknowledge.  
The blonde saw Sakyo's crimson eyes move out and gaze somewhere into the distance, and followed his gaze to look out towards a mountain towards the west of town that they were able to see fairly clearly from where they were.  
Vaguely, Takanosuke remembered seeing the mountains in one of his visions... They definitely looked quite similar now as they had then.  
"Is that Mount Tsukuba?" He questioned, taking a guess that he knew was probably pretty close to fact.  
"Yes." Sakyo said firmly, "I don't doubt that it's haunted... Just not by ghosts." Takanosuke would have to admit that the possibility of ghosts was pretty unlikely, despite the whole god-worshiping cult-thing that Ruri had mentioned...

Neither of them were sure what exactly they would be able to get out of the information they now had, or even if it would really lead them anywhere, but Takanosuke had an aching feeling in the back of his head that they were getting close to something.  
And truthfully, it did not feel like anything good...

* * *

Kakeru had made his way out of the elevator and onto the 11th floor of the TC building, the floor that his brother's office was on.  
He carried his notepad with him in his pocket, having the notes that Kyoya had given him so that he could know what it was he was looking for.  
His brother had seemed to be on to something, if Alcorin had indeed come after him, so it was worth a shot, even if it meant putting himself at risk as well... However, he had promised Tsubasa (even though indirectly) that he would try and figure out anything that could help them in their search for the psychopath.  
After all that he had done to Kyoya, and seemingly to everyone else over in Metal Bey City, the younger Tategami sibling was more than happy to help out in taking him down.  
Despite being the place where Kyoya had recently ( _too recently..._ ) been almost choked to death and seemingly almost thrown out of the window, he had decided to look for the information they all needed in his brother's office over one of the regular computers in the other work areas for the advantage of using the few upgraded systems that Kyoya had in his computer system and what not.  
Of course, being in there alone rather than being in a populated area where no psychopath in their right mind would try to kill anyone wasn't the most pleasant of thoughts either, nor the brightest, but Kakeru was willing to take his chances on it.  
It would only take a few minutes at most, or so he hoped, and then he could send what he had to Tsubasa or call him to give him whatever he found - if he managed to find anything. It was a shot in the dark for sure, but it was as good as any of them seemed to have at this point.

Exhaling somewhat shakily, the youngest Tategami pulled a Key card from out of his other pocket as he approached the sliding doors to his brother's office, sliding it through the card reader that allowed him entry. Most of the time, the doors to the office weren't locked unless Kyoya was gone for an extended period of time, and allowed entry to anyone.  
However, considering that he was currently in the hospital, the doors were bound to be locked - someone always managed to remember to seal them when Kyoya didn't (which was on very few occasions).  
Only a select few of the personnel in the building - people that Kyoya trusted the most with the responsibility - had a Key card to get into the office if need be.

Upon entering, the lights almost immediately turned on by themselves, allowing whoever had entered to see where they were going to find what they were looking for. Kakeru walked briskly over to his brother's desk, pulling the chair out and sitting down in front of the computer that had been left open, but had already turned itself off from being left for so long.  
Sitting down, the right-hand assistant pulled the laptop closer to him and pressed the power button, giving it time to start itself up again while he dug his notepad out of his pocket and flipped to the page that he had his notes on.

 _Look deeper into the lore on Nemesis._

 _Pay attention to history, and religious backstory._

 _Look for anything that could give a liable location to find Alcorin._

 _Look for specifics, if any._

 _Send to Tsubasa if find anything._

He had mostly written them down in point form, since he really wasn't skilled enough to write down an entire conversation as it went on, but it was still reliable enough for him to count on.  
He just hoped that Kyoya did indeed know what it was he was talking about when it came to this. He didn't often doubt his brother, let alone at all, really, but he knew that even Kyoya might not entirely be sure if this plan of action would work... But he had faith enough to trust that his older brother had had the right idea, or somewhere close to it.

Once the laptop in front of him fully started up, Kakeru turned to it and placed his notes on his lap, skimming over what Kyoya had already had up on the screen before he had been attacked by Alcorin.  
It was a page that had a picture from a newspaper article on it, reporting all the way back to the Nemesis Crisis after Gingka Hagane (who he now knew was deceased) had destroyed the God of Destruction in a battle that, to this day, nobody truly knew the full events of, despite most of it being recorded on camera for the world to see. Perhaps Kyoya had been trying to see if he could work out anything from this and piece it to something else, but he seemingly hadn't.  
Kakeru minimized the page that Kyoya had previously had up on the screen, saving it for possible future reference if needed, and opened a new window on the default search engine.  
Lowering his eyebrows slightly in thought, Kakeru typed in _'god of destruction history and lore'_ and was given several different results.  
The first being from Wikipedia, to which he ignored, while the rest of them either had titles similar to what he had typed in, or just a variation of the words that were in the search bar in their descriptions.  
There had to be _something_ that he could get off of here, he had just had to know where to look... Going in order, the greenette clicked on the ones that sounded the most promising, skimming through the pages with his eyes, scanning each paragraph of text and pictures for something that could prove useful.

 _...God of Destruction, otherwise known as Nemesis, is a God of Death and War..._

That didn't really say too much...

 _...commonly a symbol of the occult and dark magic..._

Now that one was at least reasonable.

 _...is believed to be to one of the original gods..._

Definitely not a popular one though...

 _..was worshiped commonly by cultists in the early middle ages..._

Which, of course, meant that there was at least some sort of religion directed towards Nemesis. Kyoya had bluntly said to look into the God of Destruction's religious history, probably since where there was a god, there would be a religion eventually, even if only a handful of people made it up. Wandering into the search bar again, Kakeru typed in _'Nemesis god of destruction religion'_ and once more went looking through the results.  
The greenette licked his lips softly as he searched through everything as quickly as he could while trying not to miss anything, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck just barely standing up with the impending feeling of something watching him creeping into the back of his head.  
Why would he be surprised if Alcorin was watching him somehow?...  
He obviously wasn't a fan of anyone who got in his way.  
Light blue eyes narrowed on the words that he had in front of him on the screen, reading through the small paragraph carefully.

 _...The religion was frowned upon by many of Catholic and Christian faith, claiming that the worship of the God of Destruction would bring upon the apocalypse..._

Seriously, what was even with religion?  
With Nemesis, it could probably be reasonable, but even so...

 _...temples and shrines were built in honor of the religion decades before the religion was claimed as evil; eventually, most of these sites of worship were torn down, but only a few remain standing to this day._

Kakeru raised his eyebrows slightly at the mention of this.  
 _"Still standing, huh?"_ He thought to himself, _"And where would those be?.."_ Highlighting several words on the paragraph, Kakeru right clicked on the mouse pad and clicked on the bar that said 'Specialized Search', which opened up a new, smaller window on the screen.  
Their company had developed some different types of technology functions over the years, and this was one of many of them, which often made searching for certain information over the internet a lot easier.  
Of course, their technology was nowhere near as advanced as it was over to the Tokyo WBBA - which they had conversed with only few very few times in all their years of affiliation (though that was a common thing with the rest of the WBBA organizations when it came to Tokyo as well) - but it was definitely a great advancement compared to years ago.  
Kakeru enlarged the window slightly before setting to work on it, skimming over the results that had been brought up specifically for anything revolving around Nemesis's religion and the sites of worship that had been dedicated to him.  
Clicking through several pages, most of them not being the most helpful in telling him anything about the locations of where those sites could be located in present day. Of course, with something as ancient as that, almost nothing could be spot on with it, especially since most locations of the temples and shrines were lost to history since they had been supposedly destroyed a long time ago.  
Still, there had be something that a few people knew about where some of them had been, or where one had been known to be that was still there...

 _...usually located in isolated areas, such as mountains and the wilderness around Japan..._

Yes, but where, was the question.  
Mountains was a good start, but there was a lot of mountains across the country...

 _...most of these sites of worship were reportedly located in the modern day Shiga, Fukui, Gunma, Nagano, and Ibaraki/Tochigi regions around Japan, though most specific areas were lost to history..._

The Ibaraki region... Wasn't that where Metal Bey City was located?  
And Kyoya had mentioned that his friends had gone out to look for Alcorin about a week ago, so wouldn't they still be relatively in the same region?  
Pulling his eyebrows together slightly, Kakeru read down the page a bit more to see if he could find any more specifics on that particular bit of information.

There was nothing except for the small bit near the bottom that said: _...out of the sites that still exist, the majority of them are known to be temples that are physically unable to be knocked down because of the areas they are located in. The remaining existence of these temples are sometimes referred to as myths or urban legends by modern townspeople, since the areas that they are located in are mostly mountainous regions. This is especially believed with the temples that were or are supposedly in Mount Hotaka in Nagano, and Mount Tsukuba in Ibaraki, where the temples were built into the mountains themselves..._  
Kakeru's eyebrows lifted slightly at this, a fleeting feeling of hope fluttering in his chest.  
Mount Tsukuba was in Ibaraki, where Metal Bey City was...

It was a long shot, since there was seemingly more than one of these temples located in various locations... But might as well take the chance.

Kakeru went down to the task bar and clicked on a icon that looked like a cartoon version of the earth, yet another one of Kyoya's more minor inserts.  
Another new, and smaller, window opened up beside the one he had previously been using, opening up to a quite detailed map that was currently locked on to his current location. Kakeru licked his lips as he went up something similar to a search bar, glancing around the room for a moment as a small chill went up his spine, making him feel slightly more uneasy than he already was.

 _"Knock it off..."_ He cursed at himself silently, typing in the area that he wanted the map to observe, generally being Japan. The map moved and focused it's sight on Japan, being zoomed out enough so that it could cover all of Japan, including the islands at the top that descended out of it.

 _You're scared..._ A voice in the back of his head spoke, though he pushed it back as he specified the Ibaraki region of Japan, and pulling it up to the specific location that had been mentioned in the other search window.  
 _Mount Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan_ the search bar now read, the map below it having now been zoomed in on the area that Kakeru was looking for.  
It was in the general area of where Mount Tsukuba was, a red arrow pointing at the mountain in question while the screen still remained large enough to show the towns and small cities that were nearby. Nodding to himself, Kakeru went down to the task bar once more and clicked on Kyoya's E-Mail, willing it to open up as quickly as it could while tapping his fingers on the keyboard.

Of course he was scared... Why wouldn't he be when was he sitting there like a duck just waiting to be shot at by a hunter?

Finally, Kyoya's E-Mail opened, and Kakeru immediately went over to the Send Mail section and specified who he was sending it to, typing in a few quick words that Tsubasa would - hopefully - know to be from him.  
Pressing several more buttons, copying and duplicating the map he had open before putting into the E-mail as a link. The youngest Tategami breathed out shakily, the room feeling slightly colder than it probably should and his heart beating wildly in his chest.  
Without any hesitation but for the slight shaking of his hands, Kakeru pressed the button that sealed the deal.

 **Send**.

The youngest Tategami sibling let out a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding, staring at the screen for a moment before the window read **Message Sent** in blue lettering, and let him slump his shoulders slightly in what he believed to be relief.  
He had managed to get what he needed and send it over to Tsubasa without any interruptions, and with no interventions from Alcorin, which had been what he was fearing the most. After what happened to Kyoya, he didn't want to end up the same way or worse, and with nothing to show for it either.  
At least this way, one way or another, at least one party got something out of it.  
Kakeru bowed his head for a moment to collect himself again, evening out his breathing before looked back up again to the wall across from Kyoya's desk... He was okay.

It was all okay.

And if he really wanted to stay that way, it likely wouldn't be a good idea to sit there like a duck for any longer.  
Glancing around the room again out of the slight paranoia that plagued him, before closing out all of the windows on Kyoya's laptop and closing it, putting his notepad back in his pocket, and getting up and making his way to the door with a straight posture.  
Now all that was left was for Tsubasa take care of the rest. Exiting through the automatic doors of the office, Kakeru got out his Key card once again and held it at the card slot, looking into the office once more with eyes that were as fierce as his elder brother's - on his better days of course.

"Choke on it, bastard..." The green-haired blader muttered hotly before sliding the card through the reader and locking the office once again.  
Of course, he hadn't really realized that he had been speaking indirectly to the raven perched just outside on the windowsill. It sat there with blank eyes, looking into the room while blending in with the area around it that consisted mostly of shadows.  
Squawking out its hollow croak, it flapped its wings and took off into the sky once more, having no further purpose in its current location...

* * *

Frightening child-like giggles echoed off the walls of stone of which Alcorin stood in, harmonizing with the slow footsteps that sounded as he made his way through the halls, his robes dragging slowly behind him as he walked at a near snail's pace.  
His inhuman eyes glowed their deep red color, somewhat illuminating the dark ahead of him as he gazed through the eyes of one of his many pets - specifically the one that he used to watch Kyoya and his brother as they danced along his chessboard. Normally, he would more than likely be very displeased with the fact that Kakeru had indeed been able to find something with his older brother's help, and send the results over to Tsubasa no less, but he was able to see the brighter side of the situation that would work everything out - for him, of course.  
If he had wanted to, if could have indeed stopped Kakeru in what he was doing, but after trying and failing to deal with Kyoya, he didn't see the point in it.

Eventually, _someone_ was going to figure it out, so it really wouldn't make a difference - he was just sparing another person of going through the trouble.

He wasn't really worried about what would happen, when Tsubasa got the message from Kakeru and told Zyro and his friends all about it, which would eventually lead them all here; when they were here, in _his_ domain, he could deal with them then.  
Or sooner, if he wished, but it would be a lot more fun to watch them squirm about.  
Especially little Zyro... He _did_ have a little issue with tight spaces, now didn't he?

Another little giggle escaped his throat at the thought before he brought his eyes back to the world in front of him, no longer staring through the dead orbs of a bird.  
He picked up his pace, his sickeningly sweet smile plastered onto his lips as he made his way through the dark that he was well-adjusted to by now. He still had one of his ravens watching Zyro and the others, as well as one keeping eyes on Sakyo and Takanosuke, who he knew would be arriving shortly, if they were able to find the entrance to this place somewhere on the mountain. But of course they would, it was only natural of all these good-doers wandering about.  
He could deal with them, and then he could manage Zyro and his little friends once he got the chance, and then all of them would finally be out of his way...  
Smile widening slightly, the albino looked up to the right with his eyes for a moment as he whistled in a pattern that sounded like 'come here', his unholy voice whispering down the halls to ears that had more than exceptional hearing.  
The white-haired man's pace slowed once more as he heard the lightly echoing sound of several feet padding towards him down the dark tunnels.  
Giving a small chuckle from his throat, Alcorin's eyes glowed menacingly as he gazed at the grey wolf that came trotting up to him in the darkness of the hall, moving at an almost mechanical pace with eyes that were just as dead as all of his ravens. Obediently did the wolf stop before it's master that had taken it against it's will, awaiting the orders that no ordinary wolf would likely be able to comprehend.  
Alcorin knelt down on one knee with one arm draped over the other, his robes partially pooling around him as he ducked low on the slightly dusty floor of his domain.  
Grasping it gently by the muzzle with his left hand, the psychopath leaned in close and spoke in a voice that could never be described as human.

 **"You know what to do."** He said simply, his mouth twisted in a sweet smile that was more terrifying than anything to those who looked upon it.  
Without needing to hear anything further, the wolf stood back off and turned the other way, trotting back down the hallway to carry out the orders that it had been given one way or another.  
Alcorin stood back up, watching wolf walk back into the darkness that it had come from before turning around himself and going the other way, knowing that once Sakyo and Takanosuke got there, he would have business to attend to...

* * *

Feeling quite more rejuvenated after receiving information that they were indeed onto something - even if it wasn't necessarily them, but another party that was wiling to help them, nonetheless - Tsubasa was working as hard as he could manage with several of the people closest to him, Ayano and Sichiro included, to try and see if they could uncover anything themselves.  
Not to mention that the actual full 8 hours of sleep he had gotten the night before was definitely helping him along as well.  
While he was sure Kakeru would try his best to pull through on his word to get something for him, he knew the world well enough to not hope too strongly for it, and so had been sure to conduct a renewed search on his part as well. It had been a couple of hours since he had spoken with Kakeru, and so far he had heard no further word on progress, which did make him worry a small bit.  
He had no doubt that Kyoya would pull out of the situation okay - he was too stubborn of a person not too - but even if he was indeed okay after being attacked by Alcorin, it didn't mean any other damage hadn't been done either. Not to mention that Alcorin could indeed decide to go after Kakeru as he had his older brother, which was a thought that the silverette tried to dwell on too much, even if it was a definite possibility.  
However, his worry slightly dissipated when he was notified of an E-Mail that had been sent to him long distance from Africa arriving in his office.  
Leaving his underlings to their work, he quickly went up the floor that his office was on to inspect what had been sent to him, and was given no doubts of who it was from.  
Other than the African WBBA, there wasn't too many people he knew in Africa.

Tsubasa made his way through the automatic doors that lead into his office, a tablet under his right arm that he had been using downstairs to keep track of things, and made his way over to his desk. Setting the device he already had with him on the corner of his work space, the silverette sat down in his swivel chair and turned towards the large screen that was built into the wall behind him, turning it on and seeing clearly the notification of an E-Mail.

 _No subject To: Tsubasa Otori From: Kyoya Otori_

Of course, he knew it wasn't really from Kyoya, who was recovering in the hospital after being attacked, but that didn't really matter. He knew who had sent it.  
Opening the E-Mail, a link that had been attached to opened up automatically as well, specifying an area that he was quite familiar with in the Ibaraki region. Looking over to the actual text as written, Tsubasa smiled with a determined look in his eyes, knowing that, for once, there was indeed hope.  
 _It isn't for sure, but it's the best guess we have. Hope it helps._

"Thanks Kakeru."


	27. Chapter 26 - All This Time

Chapter 26 - All This Time

* * *

By the time noon had arrived, the group had already asked around the majority of the downtown area of Iwase, having split up into their small groups to cover more ground, but not separating too far from each other, considering how small the town actually was.  
Almost needless to say, none of them were finding too much, and nobody that they had asked so far about anything concerning what they were looking for (which they narrowed down to rumors and history for the benefit of seeming less suspicious) seemed to know anything. All they had gotten was shrugs and shaken heads, along with a few stories that weren't related to anything they were looking for, but were interesting nonetheless.  
Kite, Madoka, and Ren had even gone to the small library that was in town to see if they could find anything, but it proved to be just as unhelpful as anything else was. They had used Maru's map a few times to be sure of their options and planned out where each group of two or three would go accordingly to make sure that they all covered as much ground as they could, but that still didn't seem to make too much of a difference. Nobody seemed to know anything, which was leaving the trail that they had originally had cold.  
By the time noon had arrived, they had all decided to take a break for awhile before they went and asked around some more through the rest of the town and downtown area.  
Despite nothing that could help them turning up so far, they knew that there had to be something to give them a clue on where to go next.  
Of course, Kira had almost suggested that perhaps there wasn't something, given the fact that you couldn't just find everything you needed just because you wanted to. Madoka had slightly agreed in a solemn tone, and stated that they would probably head either more to the west or down to Sakuragawa depending whether or not they were able to find anything.

"Well, one thing's for sure..." Ren sighed lightly as she leaned back a little in the bench she was sitting in that was pressed up against the outside of a building, letting the flat of her head fall lightly against the hard stone, "...Everyone around here sure knows each other.."

"People usually do in a place like this." Zyro said almost absently with a small shrug. Kira, who was leaning against the building beside the bench with his arms crossed, looked over slightly with his one eye.

"If so, than that probably means nobody knows anything." The Bahamoote Blader stated with a roll of the wrist, "Because if everyone knows everyone, then chances are, what one person knows, almost everyone knows. It could be pointless for all you know."  
Maru raised an eyebrow and gave a slightly pleading look to Kira with her eyes, a slanted smile on her face. "Kira, don't be glass half empty." She said, continuing to look at him for a moment before going back to looking through a few notes she had written down while they had been asking around.  
The multicolored-haired blader raised his only eyebrow at her for a moment before looking away and not saying another word. Madoka looked at the two of them for a moment before sighing through her nose slightly.  
"Even if no one knows anything, we might as well try.." She said with a slightly weary tone, "There could be something in places around here too, so we shouldn't leave that out."

"Kira's kind of right though..." Zyro said almost reluctantly, "Where I come from is maybe about the same size as this place, and when something happened, almost everyone knew about it by the end of the day. So, I guess, if were assuming it's the same way here..."

"Well, then we'll just have to look somewhere else." Kite said reasonably as he handed a small water bottle to Eight from his backpack, "The Ibaraki region is a big place, its practically undoubtable that people would know something having to do with Nemesis and the history that revolves around him."  
Kira glanced at him almost lazily with his one eye. "He could also not be in the Ibaraki region." The multicolored-haired blader suggested, "He's practically got all of Japan at his disposal. He might not even be in Japan for all you know."

"Kira, can you please stop with the negativity?" Ren asked flatly, which simply earned a shrug of the shoulders from the other boy - he did however, remain silent. "Besides..." Ren continued, moving to sit up with a more straight posture, "There's nothing saying that he _isn't_ in Japan. Really, everything we found suggests that he could be, so what says that he isn't?"  
At this statement, Zyro and Shinobu glanced at each other slightly, before Zyro's blue eyes looked up around the tops of the buildings around them, and even looked up to the power lines - however, from what he could see, there wasn't any sort of animal watching them, bird or no.  
Maru shrugged her shoulders in response to Ren's statement, a small smile on her face with slightly raised eyebrows. "That's true, but that still leaves the question of where he is." The small girl stated, "Japan, maybe, but it doesn't really help in pointing where he could be specifically, so we still have to figure that out, and..." Maru quickly trailed off from her sentence once she noticed the small blinking red light in the corner of her eye, which made her almost immediately turn her lavender-eyed gaze back to the bracelet on her wrist, which she had settled in her lap after going through the notes that she had written on it.  
"Hey, I think Tsubasa's calling." The pinkette announced as she brought her slightly sore arm back up in front of her and pressed the button that brought the screen up.

She got everyone's attention at that statement, and most of them almost immediately looked up or stood straight, while Madoka made her way over beside her apprentice to see what it was about. Once more did the holographic screen protruding from her bracelet pop up on the 'desktop', showing a red, blinking circle in the corner of the screen.  
Maru tapped her finger just above it, and opened a screen that she and Madoka has seen several times since they had started out on this whole ordeal, and were greeted with a familiar face.  
"Hey guys." Tsubasa greeted with a smile, and Madoka was more than glad to see that he no longer looked as fatigued and weary as he originally had - hopefully that was good sign.  
"Hi, Tsubasa." The brunette greeted in return, seeing several of the others moving in to try and hear the conversation better out of the corner of her eye, "Good to see you again. I hope your calling to tell us some good news."  
Tsubasa smiled at her, his gold eyes shining brightly in representation of his mood. "Actually, I've got some pretty good news." He said almost half-cheerfully, "I managed to get something that could hopefully lead you guys to where Alcorin is, as probable as it might be."  
At this statement, almost everyone's eyes widened, and Eight almost seemed to drop the bottle of water he was holding.  
"Wait, what?" Ren said in an almost dumbfounded tone, eyebrows raised above their original standpoints.  
"Wait, so you actually found his location?" Madoka asked incredulously, " _How_?"

"Well, its definitely not a 100% for sure, but judging from other things, it's the best shot we have." Tsubasa explained, shrugging his shoulders lightly, "Luckily, I managed to get some help from Kyoya over in Africa."

"Kyoya?!" Benkei exclaimed at the sound of his old friend's name, his eyes lighting up immediately, "You talked to Kyoya?!"

"Manager, calm down..." Shinobu, Zyro, Maru, and Kite said in unison with sweat-drops on their foreheads. Madoka smiled slightly at Benkei's sudden enthusiasm before turning her turquoise eyes back to Tsubasa.  
"How did you get Kyoya to help you in the first place?" The brunette asked curiously, "We haven't talked to him in years, I thought we weren't in association with him anymore."

"Well, let's just say he called me about his own suspicions about what's been going on." Tsubasa answered with a small sigh, "We managed to sort things out though, and he said that was willing up us with this. And fortunately, he had a lot more luck than we did over here."  
Madoka furrowed her eyebrows slightly at a small tone in Tsubasa's voice at the mentioning of Kyoya sending some them something, noting that it was partially like the last time he had called them - he had seemed shaky, almost absent, and almost the same could be said about now.  
Deciding that it probably wasn't the best time to bring it up, Madoka pushed it to the back of her mind to save for a later conversation, when they would hopefully be back in Metal Bey City.  
"What did he find?" The shop owner asked, and Tsubasa's eyes trailed off the screen to something beside him.  
"He actually got to digging up some more things about those temples, I guess." The silverette began, "Turns out there's one pretty near you in the Ibaraki region; he sent the coordinates for it to me earlier today. I'm sending them to you now."  
After a few moments of the Director seeming to type on something off screen, a small icon of an envelope appeared in the bottom left had corner of the screen that read **New Message** in bold, white letters, Tsubasa's name written directly under it.

"Okay, I think I got it." Maru said, tapping just above the icon that had appeared and allowing a message window to show up with just a simple dash in the section where you were supposed to write something, a link that was connected to it automatically opening up along with it and showing a realistic map that you would likely find on one of the settings of Google Earth.  
Maru raised her eyebrows at it upon further inspection, seeing what the blinking arrow on the map was pointing to. "Mount Tsukuba?" The pinkette questioned in almost astonishment, "That's basically just south of where we are." Tsubasa smiled at the small girl at that statement.  
"Well, then I guess it's a good thing that I caught you all when I did." He said thoughtfully. "Thanks Tsubasa." Madoka said gratefully to the silverette, "You've been a big help."

"No problem." The Director replied, "Be careful when you go after him, alright? I'll be seeing you soon, hopefully."

"Same here." The brunette replied warmly, before the screen that Tsubasa was on closed as he ended their connection to one another.  
Even though he was gone, Maru kept the screen of her bracelet up, all of them still looking towards the small piece of map that Tsubasa had sent to them.  
"Wait, are you telling me he's in a mountain?" Ren asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow as she stared at the screen.  
"You're surprised, after what we've heard about those temples that guy's father had?" Kite asked, the sun reflecting off of his glasses by the angle he was standing at.  
"I'm more concerned over the fact that we actually have something pointing to us to almost exactly where he is..." Shinobu said quite solemnly, "And the fact that the Director actually managed to find something that specific."

"With Kyoya's help!" Benkei added in, his behavior more than excited at hearing that Kyoya Tategami, one of the Legendary Bladers and the Manager's best friend, had taken part in helping them find Alcorin.  
Now that Madoka thought about it, that was just like Kyoya to go searching for answers on his own and being stubborn enough not to stay out of it when he was told too. They hadn't talked to him in years, and now knowing that Tsubasa had finally gotten back in contact with him - granted being with a situation that no one in their right mind would think to find themselves in - made her feel just a little better, even if not by too much. Perhaps she herself would have to speak with him too once they all ended this and got back to Metal Bey City - back to their normal lives ( _you can't be normal, what are you talking about?_ ).  
And speaking of ending all of it, now seemed about time too.  
"Well, it's good enough to go on." The brunette said as she sat up straight from leaning over slightly to see the screen, "I think we should probably make course for there as soon as possible."

"How far away is it?" Eight asked, passing the bottle of water he had back to his older brother and looking towards Maru.  
"Not that far, really." The pinkette responded, "Sakuragawa isn't even half a day's walk from here, and then Mount Tsukuba is almost like a suburb to it. We could get there in maybe a day or two."

"Well isn't _that_ convenient..." Kira stated dully, rolling his eye slightly.  
"What's _your_ deal?" Ren questioned with a raised eyebrow. Expecting one of his usual sass-filled comebacks, the blonde was slightly surprised when the Bahamoote Blader simply shrugged and waved it off with a roll of his wrist.  
Despite the unusual context of Kira not giving them his direct thoughts, nobody said anything about it, and simply let him be.  
Zyro, however, bit the inside of his lip before looking away from the multicolored-haired blader, perhaps having the same sense that something was indeed a bit off.  
While it was good news that another one of the Legendary Blader bladers - Kyoya Tategami, no less - was willing to help them out, it was a bit strange that Tsubasa and him had indeed been able to get something as direct as that without the psychopath intervening.  
After what had apparently happened with Dynamis at the Mist Mountain Shrine, and after what he had done to Gingka, it was clear that Alcorin didn't fear the Legendary Bladers, and that he was more than okay with taking their lives to get them out of the way of the things he wanted.  
So it was either that he maybe _had_ gone after Kyoya Tategami, or he hadn't - either way didn't bring any peace to his mind... If he didn't, than that had to _mean_ something right? He didn't just do something for no reason, as far as any of them had seen, so if he didn't go after Kyoya as he had gone after and killed Dynamis and Gingka, than that meant he wanted something, didn't it?

"Zyro? Hey, Zyro!" A voice right next to him snapped the ginger-ravenette out of his thoughts and back to reality, where he saw everyone else looking at him with concern while Ren stood almost face to face with him.  
"Uuhhh.." The Ifraid Blader uttered, dumbfound for moment before Madoka spoke up beside him.  
"You okay, Zyro?" The shop owner asked, "You started spacing out for a minute."

"Oh, uh, yeah.." The blue-eyed boy said dismissively, "I'm okay." Most of them continued to look at him with concerned faces before supposedly choosing to believe that he was telling truth and looked away from him, all of them going back to the conversation originally at hand.  
"Alright then, let's go." Madoka said, adjusting one of the straps of the backpack on her shoulders before standing, followed suite by Maru - who had already put the holographic screen back into her bracelet -, and Zyro; Kira also somewhat followed in that action, though he simply uncrossed his arms and legs and pushed himself away from leaning against the wall.  
Figuring out which they were supposed to go, which was, of course, South, and being sure to take the streets that would lead them in that direction, the group set off once again in their journey, but this time with a little more vigor than they had originally had.  
Now that they finally had something as solid as this to go on, a little optimism was definitely showing through.  
Even so, Zyro couldn't help but have a small feeling of dread in the back of his skull, which didn't unnoticed by Shinobu as he walked beside him.

"You sure you're okay, Zyro?" The light-haired blader asked, his light green eyes looking over at his best friend in concern. In response, Zyro simply smiled with an almost apologetic look.  
"Yeah, I'm okay..." He said, trailing off for a moment before continuing, "...I just can't help but feel that something's a little off about this..."

"There's always been something 'a little off' about everything that's been happening..." The Salamander Blader replied, "Is this really any different?" Zyro didn't answer for a moment, appearing to suck on his bottom lip for a moment before looking back down towards the ground.  
"I don't know." He said with a small sigh, "Maybe."  
Shinobu continued to look at Zyro for a moment, concern pulling at his heart for the sake of the Ifraid Blader. However, he chose not to say anything, and just kept on walking, though he kept an eye on the boy walking beside him just in case.  
If Zyro was getting nervous, than he really couldn't blame him.  
A few of them had almost died the last time they had come so close to Alcorin, and the black-haired boy himself had just barely cheated death at his hands... How different would this time be?  
That was the question that Shinobu asked himself as they all made their way out of Iwase, and what refused to leave him alone as they kept going...

* * *

Both Takanosuke and Sakyo had opted it best to leave Ishioka for Mount Tsukuba soon after they gotten the information from Ruri, knowing that, hopefully, the sooner they were able to get there, the better. Takanosuke still kept the box with their purchased teacup with him, since he knew that it wouldn't be right to just leave it somewhere after Sakyo had paid for it.  
The Dragoon Blader hadn't said anything about it and just let him, taking in consideration that the curly-haired blonde did have a pretty fair point - he had mainly done it to have an excuse to talk to the shop owner back in the small town behind them, since it was evident that there was probably no other way.  
Or at least not one that he had been able to think of at that moment.  
Besides, teacups were kind of nice anyway, and Takanosuke definitely seemed to like it, so might as well keep it with them.  
It was perhaps just after mid-day down, and after several hours of walking at a fair pace that he hoped wouldn't exhaust Takanosuke too much they had actually made some pretty good distance.  
Mount Tsukuba was far closer than it originally had been, and Sakyo could see that were just a little more than half-way there by now - it wouldn't be long before they finally arrived to mountain, but the thing that concerned him the most was how long it would take to find the entrance to the supposed temple built into the mountain.  
If it was just a rumor over in Ishioka, and nobody had actually found it yet to prove the rumor true, than it had to be well hidden, right?  
That or there was something keeping people from finding it, which it wouldn't put past Alcorin being able to handle, but, the again, he hadn't been there for very long, and the entrance to the 'temple' had been a rumor long before that as well.  
The red-and-white-haired blader narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking over it for a moment before mentally shaking his head and looking forward once more.  
They would have to figure it out once they got there.

Settling on that for the time being, Sakyo switched his mind over to the boy walking just beside him, looking down towards the head of light blonde curls.  
"How are you holding up?" The Dragoon Blader asked in his firm tone, Takanosuke's cerulean eyes looking up towards him in response.  
"I'm okay, Sakyo." The Griffin Blader replied, knowing why the redhead was concerned about him after what had been happening in the last few days, "I'm just glad we finally have something that could hopefully lead us to Alcorin."  
Sakyo hummed at that, looking away from him and forward again, though he kept speaking. "That's good." He said briefly, and Takanosuke simply smiled beside him, "If you're sure you're alright, than we can keep going until we get there and hopefully find this 'temple'..."

"Yeah, I can do that." The shorter one said, "I'm fine, really." By the tone in his voice from his next words, Sakyo somehow knew that his expression had turned into a quizzical one, "I just don't know where I'm going to put this teacup box once we get there."

"We'll find a place." Sakyo responded gruffly, "We'll come back and pick it up once we're done in there."  
Takanosuke was silent for another moment before saying, "Okay..." and falling silent once more. 'Once they were done in there', of course... But what exactly would they be doing in there?  
Looking for Alcorin, sure, but the psychopath would surely know the place better than they did.  
And who knew what would happen in there once they got to it... Takanosuke knew he shouldn't be thinking about it, knew that he should at least try and stay optimistic in the hopes that would find Alcorin, and maybe - through some miraculous event - meet up with Zyro and the others, who they knew were searching for Alcorin's location as well.  
Maybe it would've been better to go with them, but it was far too late for that now... They didn't even know where they were, or how they were doing in their search.  
They were probably either having worst luck, or better luck, if anything.  
They themselves seemed to be fortunate, what with Ruri taking them for people visiting and explaining to them the rumors of Mount Tsukuba, and with his own visions that constantly seemed to be right about a few things so far, but... Something felt off, and he wasn't sure what it was.  
There was heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach, something itching at the back of his skull, and he couldn't figure out what the problem was. Everything would surely be fine, wouldn't it? They would get there, hopefully find Alcorin, _hopefully_ get rid of him once and for all, and then leave and go back home, right?

That was how most people would envision it to go, even if some things were bound to get in the way. But Takanosuke was unable to help the feeling of dread and impending doom that plagued him as they drew closer to their aimed destination, and which only grew stronger with every step he took.  
And, of course, whenever he looked towards Sakyo, which only made him worry even more...

* * *

He needed it to stop.

He needed all of it to _stop_ , but Gingka knew by now that wishing for that was futile, and that it never would.

He needed the constant silent ringing in his ears to stop, he needed the darkness that surrounded him to stop, he needed _it_ to _stop_ , but that was impossible.  
He had tried telling it time and time again to leave him alone, tried to pull on his invisible restraints until he was sure that his wrists would bleed, tried screaming and _screaming_ until his voice went hoarse and his throat was sore and raw, but none of it ever stopped.  
All that surrounded him was silence and darkness, all that accompanied him was the thing that took some form of sick joy in tormenting him, all that he ever saw was the shadows within the shadows, that he was sure weren't even really there, but how the hell was he supposed to know anymore?  
There was nothing here... Nothing but the two of them, and Gingka would have rather chosen eternal loneliness in a heartbeat rather than spending eternity trapped here with that _thing_ , whatever it was supposed to be  
. He didn't care about what it was anymore, he didn't give a _damn_ about what it wanted, he just wanted it to _leave him alone_ , but he knew that it never would as long as it was only the two of them.  
Every time it came he endured the endless torture through tears and raw screams, any ounce of pride completely forgotten, and every time it left he _prayed_ to whatever god there might be that it would _stay away_ and leave him in his dark and quiet hell... But it always came back.

It always came back to torment him more, always to touch him and whisper to him to the point where he wasn't sure when it might be touching and when it might not be, wasn't sure if it was still there or not even after it had gone, because that damned _voice_ kept echoing in his head along with the ringing in his ears, and he couldn't _take it_.  
He had stopped hoping that something would get him out of here, stopped waiting for _someone_ to come and get him away from this place, because, as well as he knew, there was no way out of here.  
It made very sure to make that clear with him.  
And so far, it had definitely been right; no matter how loud he screamed or how hard he prayed, nothing would come to save him from the abyss that he had fallen into, trapping him in his own hell that was more agonizing and maddening than being tortured on a steel slab surrounded by flames - because it was simply _nothing_.

So all he did was sit there on his knees on the space ( _what space, it's all space.._ ) that may or may not been the floor ( _it could be the_ ceiling _if it wanted to be.._ ), his arms - still slightly red from the abrasions that he himself had inflicted - wrapped loosely around his waist and torso as he rocked back and forth in a slow motion, and he didn't even know _why_ he was doing it anymore...  
Maybe it was to try and see the shadows ( _But it's_ all _shadows.._ ) move within the darkness, to see something other than nothing but black, or maybe it was just to occupy himself rather than sit still as a statue as he had originally had, willing to try anything to stop himself from going insane - he was probably _way_ too late for that, but whatever, he didn't care...  
Gingka just sat there, rocking back and forth in an almost hypnotizing motion, staring forward into nothingness with eyes that seldom blinked in his almost trance-like state, chanting something to himself over and over again inside his head.  
Then again, he wasn't really listening to it, so he wasn't sure what it was, or even if he was actually chanting anything to himself at all, but whatever... It wasn't important either way.  
Doing nothing but rock back and forth in his evenly timed motion, Gingka simply sat there, staring from the darkness to the floor ( _Is it the wall, what the hell is it?.._ ) to his lap again and again, but he wasn't really focusing on the things that he could see anymore, because there wasn't anything to see but himself and whatever the hell was in there with him, whatever the hell it was...

Instead he kept listening, which he didn't _want_ to do because of the constant ringing that just _wouldn't_ stop, and all those whispers that he just kept hearing even though there was nothing there, he was sure there was nothing there because he it wasn't _touching_ him, but he kept doing it anyway, trying to hear through the deaf silence and the words that kept ringing in his ears to the other things that surrounded him, even there _was_ nothing, but there was always _something_ around, and it would always come to him.  
It would always come back to play, even though he hated the game that it forced him into, and he was almost never ready for when it did, but he could at least _try_ to be, right? Then maybe it would stop? Maybe it would grow bored and finally leave him alone and go back to whatever hole it had crawled out of in that existed in his own head...

But that was a pathetic and useless thing to wish for.

Gingka knew that all too well, and it had made sure that he did.

But he kept listening for it anyway.  
Kept listening for the inevitable shuffle of clothing ( _Please, let it actually be clothing, it had to be clothing_ ) that would come up from behind him and the sound of a soft giggle before he felt those hands on him again, those _damned_ hands that he couldn't stand the feeling of, even with the skin as smooth as glass, they emitted something ungodly that made him barely able to feel anything at all except for _that_.  
Originally, it had been far more easier to hear it coming when it was just him and the silence, when he wasn't darting his eyes this way and that in hopes and gaining some sort of more _real_ reality from it, but now he had to focus for it, he had to _listen_ and try and push past the constant voices and ringing that wouldn't leave him alone and aimed to drive him into insanity. Maybe they had already done that, maybe he already _was_ crazy long before he had thought to acknowledge it, but that didn't matter, because he could swear he could hear it coming.  
But at the same time, he almost wasn't sure.

Gingka was sure that it was _it_ , because it was the only other thing in there besides himself, and he was sure that there was nothing else in there but the two of them, but the way that it was seemingly approaching him made him think otherwise.  
It had always crawled to him, showing up out of no where in this place that it almost seemed to control even though it was just _nothing_ , and he had grown to recognize the sound, and he almost didn't recognize this one because _since when_ did it bother to actually _walk_?...

Because he heard footsteps.

Footsteps, supposedly from boots, because he believed he remembered what boots sounded like even though it had been years ( _Years, right? It had to have been years.._ ), somehow echoing in the entirely empty space that surrounded them both, coming closer and closer to him until he knew that it was only a few steps away.  
Gingka's rocking had long since ceased, leaving him an almost half doubled over position and making him stare towards the ground ( _Ground, is it actually ground?_ ) with his eyes, and they both stood and sat there in silence for what could have been eternity as well as only a few seconds.  
It was almost unbearable to the redhead, until the other spoke, the tone of clear amusement in it's voice that he still thought he recognized but could never place.

 **"Well now, just look at you."** It began in a mocking tone, and Gingka could practically feel it staring down at him, **"You remind me of myself, once upon a time... If you can turn out like this in just 3 weeks, just imagine what** ** _20 years_** **would do to you.. Poor,** ** _sweet_** **little Gingka."**  
Gingka's body tensed, his arms wrapped around himself a little tighter as his fingers twitched, the voice of that accursed creature ringing around in his head as it spoke, and he was left all but defenseless.

Wait, 3 weeks?...

Was that how long it had been?

But it couldn't be, it had been so much more longer than that, it couldn't have just been 3 weeks, he should _remember_ 3 weeks ago... Disregarding his current state, it kept talking.

 **"That would be** ** _such_** **a treat to watch... But, it really wouldn't matter, now would it? Because there's only going to be one of us to ever see the dear light of day again... But you don't remember what that is, now do you?"**  
Hearing the chains that restrained him rattling clearly beside, Gingka brought his hands up to the sides of his head, just barely around his ears as he silently begged it to stop, which he knew it wouldn't because it never did so why on _earth_ would it do so now?..  
 **"You'd stay here, and I would** ** _never_** **let you out. And then you'd know what it feels like to be me for** ** _all those years_** **, and you would be** ** _just_** **like me."**

"I'm not like you..." Gingka heard himself muttering pathetically, some ounce of defiance still left in him somehow even though he had thought it had gone by now. But apparently it was still there, and it wasn't like he had planned to say it, he had just _said_ it, because that's what had come naturally to him...  
But another part of him knew that maybe it was telling the truth, but it couldn't be telling the truth, and yet it _could_ be at the same time, and he didn't know which it was doing when.  
But he heard it laugh behind, a sound that haunted him and made his body tense even further, his fingers gripping at his red locks ever so slightly.  
It was then that he heard the rustling of clothing again, and he instantly knew that it had knelt down behind him again as it so often did once it's hands came to either of his shoulders and stayed there.  
 **"** ** _Not like me_** **? Is that so? Is that** ** _honestly_** **what you believe Gingka? Is that ignorance still there, after** ** _all this time_** **?..."** Another quiet laugh from behind him, and he subconsciously shivered. **"Of course some part of you would still think that, but** ** _another_** **part** ** _knows_** **, Gingka.. You know that we are more alike than you would ever care to admit, because you would** ** _never_** **acknowledge it... But now you do, don't you? You spent all those years, your** ** _entire_** **life pushing me back and making a mockery of** ** _everything_** **we stand for... So what if I kept you here until you finally realized what you're supposed to be? You really couldn't stop me.."**

"Stop it..." The redhead muttered weakly, the grip of his head tightening as he began to shake, feeling the numbness that came with the overwhelming _feeling_ that radiated from it's skin and through his clothing.  
Behind him, he could feel its twisted smile, and as always, it didn't stop. **"I could keep you here forever if I wanted too... Than you'd see exactly what it's like, and how it is to not have anything but** ** _nothing_** **. You would just hope and pray that someone would let you out, that someone would come and release you from this place... Your friends, you would hope for, right? But they would never come..."**

"Stop, please..." He begged in a whispered manner, reduced to nothing more but a trembling ball of pleading.

 **"** ** _Maybe_** **you could see the outside, just maybe... But it would always be out of your reach, and you would always hear things from outside, but you could never be apart of it, because you're here, and you can't leave. And after** ** _so_** **many** ** _years_** **you would just stop and take a moment to realize that nobody cared about you, because** ** _how_** **could anybody care about someone like** ** _you_** **. And after awhile... You wouldn't care. You wouldn't care for the longest time, and you would remind yourself that no one else cared either..."**  
Silently, Gingka did his best to shake his head through his shaking, pressing the palms of his hands against the side of his head as if trying to make it all stop, but it wouldn't stop, it would never stop.  
 **"And when there was nothing left for you here, as if there ever was, you would look outside again, and watch. Until all you wanted to do was** ** _destroy_** **."**

 **Ba-thump**

"STOP IT!" The redhead all but screamed, doubling over further with his hands pressed against his skull, a desperate look on his face as he heard the mantra over and over again in his mind, unable to ignore the feeling of _familiarity_ at that word.

 **Destroy**

No.

 **Destroy**

No, no, no.

 ** _Destroy_**

No, goddammit, get out!

 **"See what I mean?...** The thing behind him questioned playfully, a small laugh escaping its lips as it watched his torment, watched him try to defy everything, watch him as he curled in on himself like a pathetic child..  
"Stop it, stop it!" Gingka shouted repeatedly, pulling himself up a bit into an almost sitting position, hands on both sides of his head trying to tell the voices to _stop_ , pupils dilated in a look of desperation and madness, breathing heavy as he heard nothing but that word echo in his head.

 **Destroy**

"Stop it, please! I'm not like you! I'm nothing like you!" The redhead shouted over and over again, shaking his head and trying to convince himself that it was true, because he had to be right, it _had_ to be wrong, didn't it?

It had to be.

 **"** ** _Nothing_** **like** ** _me_** **?!"** It questioned in a voice filled with laughter and insanity, before Gingka felt those hands reach up from behind him and grab his head on either side before pulling it back until he was looking straight up, only to see something as snow white as the hands that he had always known, and looking into something filled with insanity that he would never be able to forget.  
 **"I** ** _am_** **you!"**

The face he stared into was his own.


	28. Chapter 27 - Beautiful Abyss

Chapter 27 - Beautiful Abyss

* * *

Sakyo had been correct when he had suspected that it would only take an hour or so more for both him and Takanosuke to make it to the base of Mount Tsukuba - or just about, either way, as both of them gazed at the approaching and almost menacing treeline while they walked through the shrubbery that had only grown thicker the more they went on.  
The mountain was mostly forest, from what could clearly be seen from where they were from, although Sakyo had figured out earlier that there were several buildings and outposts placed in select locations around the mountain, but not many. Since the mountain was relatively avoided by the people who actually believed in the rumors that were spread around, it was probably no wonder the supposed temple hadn't been discovered before.  
Or maybe it had at some point... After all, the rumors had to come from somewhere, didn't they?  
Either way, it probably wasn't very likely that they would run into anyone else out there, or even come across one of those said outposts, so perhaps that was a good thing, so that nobody would question what they were doing out there; considering that they definitely weren't in hiking gear, and the fact that Takanosuke was carrying a box with a teacup around, they might seem a little inconspicuous.  
However, it wasn't the biggest issue to worry about, so Sakyo decided not to, and focused on the main objective of why they were here: to find Alcorin and hopefully take him down for good, seeing as how he had cleverly eluded his fate-to-be last time.  
Most of them knew how it was with Alcorin, Sakyo and Takanosuke, included even though they had only found out about him the day that they battled him, and they all knew well enough to know that if Alcorin didn't want anyone to find him, he would go to hell and back to assure that they didn't, which was definitely a problem.  
However, if they _were_ able to find the entrance to it, that either meant that the psychopath wasn't paying too much attention to what was happening on the exterior of the mountain, or he wanted them to find him.  
The latter of the two definitely wasn't a pleasant thought, because if Alcorin wanted to be found by them, than that could only mean that he had something planned for them.  
And his plans seemed to always have room for a few dead bodies here and there, as far as Sakyo could tell.  
That was one of the biggest issues the situation presented, and they were both well aware that they would have to be careful once they found the place - if they were able too, that is.

The two of them stopped walking just before they were to enter the edge of the forest, both of them taking a moment to take another look of what was ahead of them in the menacing wilderness.  
"That's a lot of forest." Takanosuke pointed out unhelpfully, and Sakyo internally chuckled at that statement.  
"Yes." He said in turn with the smallest tugs of a smile on his face, "The entrance to the temple should be in there somewhere. It'll be dark soon, so we should cover as much ground as we can before then."

"I guess so..." Takanosuke agreed quietly, "But shouldn't it be pretty well hidden if nobody's found it before?"

"Possibly." Sakyo replied in somewhat agreement, "We'll have to keep an eye out." Takanosuke nodded as he looked up towards the slightly older blader, before he looked back towards the forest that stood in front of them.  
His cerulean eyes wandered up to above the treeline, gazing at the mountain that the forest mostly covered and feeling slightly intimidated by it.  
Surely there wasn't really a need to be, it was just a mountain...

Well, it was a mountain that probably housed an inhuman psychopath, so, maybe that did the feeling some justice - he wasn't too sure. Either way, it gave him a bit of a bad feeling, and, besides the Alcorin thing, he wasn't too sure why.  
It was just weird... However, it was probably best to just try and push the feeling back for now and focus on what they were here for.  
They had to find Alcorin, and if they did then they could hopefully end all of this. The guy had done more than enough damage than should be caused by any person.  
"Well, let's go then, I guess." Takanosuke said, and Sakyo glanced down at him at the sudden show of leadership, despite being a little subdued due to the blonde's usual nature of following.  
"Alright." Sakyo replied in agreement, and both of them walked forward into the forest that stood in front of them, the light of the partially setting sun being slightly obscured from view due to the leaves and branches that now covered them overhead.

At least it was a bit cooler in here than it was out there, and that was something that Takanosuke was thankful for, in a previous consideration that maybe the heat had something to do with triggering the visions he kept having.  
But that wasn't very likely, since his grandmother had never mentioned anything about things like heat being able to trigger _her_ visions.  
It was usually just seeing certain things, as far as he knew... But then again, his visions just kept acting up whenever they wanted to, so there wasn't too much he could say on it.  
But it was cooler in the forest, nonetheless, despite the air still being a little hot from the natural heat of summer.  
"Where do you think the door to this place would be on this mountain?" Takanosuke asked, glancing around at the forest area around them and ahead of them.  
"I'm not sure." Sakyo said bluntly, "Perhaps somewhere he doesn't want people to find it - which could be anywhere, as far as we know."

"Yeah, I guess..." Takanosuke responded quietly, taking that fact into consideration. It was probably going to be awhile of walking and searching around on this mountain before they found anything - _if_ they did, that was.  
After all, the mountain was huge, and there was definitely the possibility that they could be wandering around for a few days before they managed to find the entrance to this place, suggesting that it actually existed.  
Not that Takanosuke personally believed that it didn't, considering the stories that Ruri had told them back in Ishioka, but it was still a possibility that the rumors were, indeed, just rumors.  
And he wanted to find the temple, he was sure that Sakyo did as well, but there was also a part of him that wished that they were. He still wasn't sure why, but something about hopefully getting closer to Alcorin didn't make him feel, well, all that _hopeful_.  
He knew it was probably just with the knowledge that they were more than likely closer than anyone could be to Alcorin at the moment, which would probably be able to shake any of them considering all that he had done, but... He had felt it even before they had gotten anywhere Mount Tsukuba, when they hadn't been close or had any knowledge of where Alcorin could be.  
It was strange, but it probably wasn't worth worrying about at the moment.  
Surely it would get better once they found the temple and got inside it, or maybe when they finally found Alcorin and they got rid of him would it subside.

 _"Hopefully..."_ Takanosuke thought to himself with an inner sigh, before focusing his full attention on their surroundings and following Sakyo through the wilderness, which the elder would hopefully be able to navigate through better than he could.  
Both of the focused on their main objective, the two of them continuously walked deeper and deeper into the woods, the light of the somewhat setting sun streaming through the leaves and illuminating their way through the thick brush. Surprisingly, there wasn't a ton of wildlife around, other than the faint chirping of small birds and the squirrel that Takanosuke had pointed out.  
Or at least he _thought_ it was a squirrel, but Sakyo took his word for it anyway.

Perhaps the animals had been scared off by something, since there should usually be a lot of wildlife wandering around at this time of year, even if it was almost Fall.  
After all, animals had way better senses than humans did, and maybe they had picked up something strange from around the mountain... That was definitely a plausible thing.  
Weren't gods supposed to give off some sort of weird aura or something?  
That was Takanosuke figured from all the things that he had ever heard about the supernatural and all that. Sakyo figured that was problem the case as well, indicating that they were more than likely as close to their objective as they had ever been this time around.  
That made sense, considering what being that Alcorin had originally be sired by.  
It was good to know that at least _something_ made sense nowadays... But even still, it didn't help with the fact of impending doom that weighed down on both of them - Takanosuke most of all...

* * *

Although he was not on the outside, Alcorin could see the two of them. This time, he stood silently in one of the many chambers that littered the layout of the entire temple, and to anyone else he would seem like he was just staring aimlessly at the wall across the room for no apparent reason, but that was not so.  
His eyes, of their demonic nature, were not focused on anything in the room, because they were focused on the sights seen through the eyes of one of his dearly beloved pets that he had sent out to do its work.  
Through its eyes, he saw the subdued form of setting sunlight, saw leaves and grass and trees that he knew surrounded the mountain, and saw too lone figures walking through the brush from behind several layers of bushes, his pet unseen and unnoticed, just as he wanted it to be.  
Through its dead eyes did he watch both Takanosuke and Sakyo, gazing at them with a malicious smile somewhat playing at his lips and watching as they wandered deeper into the forest that they knew nothing about.  
But, then again, if they knew nothing about it, why would they be here? Of course they knew, or at least strongly suspected, that he was here, because why wouldn't they? It had only been a matter of time before someone from that town - Ishioka, was it? - revealed the rumor that he knew was common around the area.  
While it was unfortunate to its own extent, it was also a useful aspect to have in this area - that meant that practically nobody came onto the mountain, so he would likely never have to be worried about focusing on other irrelevant human beings that wandered through the forests.

Honestly... Fear was such a pitiful thing... But even still, he enjoyed inflicting it into the hearts of those who opposed against him, reveled in the look of fright that wracked their faces and beings as they even just _listened_ to his voice... Of course, why wouldn't they?  
It was his heritage from his father after all.  
And as he had inflicted fear and pain upon Zyro and them in the past, he would do the same to Sakyo and Takanosuke now, and he would do it once more to Zyro and his little friends once they arrived, because, of course, they knew where he was as well.  
The two of them were here now, right before the eyes of one of his many pets that he had lying in wait, waiting for his command that he had to simply speak and they would obey.  
And knowing that it was finally time to bring all of them down to their knees - in one way or another - he spoke the command.

 **"Bring them to me."** And his pet obeyed...

* * *

Takanosuke's eyes glanced over to a patch of bushes that was a few meters away from them at the sound of rustling leaves, stopping in his tracks for a moment to let his cerulean eyes wander over the direction where he had heard the noise coming from.  
But, as far as he could see, there wasn't anything there... Though he had almost sworn he had seen something grey or black out of the corner of his eyes.  
Then again, his eyes weren't the reliable thing right now, even with his visions...

"Takanosuke?" Sakyo questioned, drawing the curly-haired blonde's attention towards the Dragoon Blader.  
"Uh, sorry.." The Griffin Blader quickly apologized before glancing back to the space where he had sworn he had heard something, "I just thought I heard something, that's all."

"Well, keep an eye out." Sakyo replied, "When it comes to Alcorin, thinking you heard something isn't usually a good thing."

"Yeah..." Takanosuke said in agreement, gazing at the spot where had heard the sound of rustling leaves a moment longer before tearing away and catching back up with the older blader.  
In the shadows that the sun cast on the forest, it was a little spooky now.  
Both of them had noted that not to many animals were around in the forest now, so, surely, whatever Takanosuke could have heard hadn't been an animal.  
Maybe, anyway.  
Considering Alcorin, no one could ever be too sure what was what. So if Alcorin _was_ here, he was more than likely watching them in some way or another, as he seemed to take a pleasure in doing and knowing what everyone was up too.  
However, _how_ he could be watching them was another problem, since they had no idea what to look out for.  
And judging from the fact that they were far from Metal Bey City and any other WBBA corporation, he definitely wasn't using cameras as he previously had. The two of them kept walking, both being as silent as they could be (which really wasn't too hard to do in Sakyo's case) in order to listen to the things in around them, listening for anything out of the ordinary just in case.  
However, for the next half hour after that, neither of them really heard anything but the crunching of grass and twigs beneath their own feet and the few sing-song voices of birds here and there. Whatever the younger had possibly heard earlier was either gone now, or lying in wait.  
Which wasn't too common of an animal, since one wouldn't sensibly wait this long if it was predatory.

Neither of them were willing to take the chance however, so they continued on, making their way through the bushes and shrubbery and trees, and even a small, 3 foot wide stream of water that journeyed downhill from somewhere.  
Still, there was nothing, and as they walked on, glancing around every now and then to watch their surroundings or look for anything that could be a potential lead in the right direction, the day continuously grew darker, though not dark enough to obstruct their view of everything around them.  
After about 15 or so more minutes - neither of them were entirely sure of how long it had been, but that had to be about right - there was still nothing, and both of them stopped walking to rest for a few moments before they would continue on.  
"Maybe I was just hearing things..." Takanosuke said with a small sigh, "It might've been nothing."

"Perhaps." Sakyo said with a neutral tone, and Takanosuke knew that even he considered that it was nothing, but was not willing to give up the notion of it being _something_ just yet.  
Of course, he wasn't entirely either, even though they hadn't heard anything else for the past 45 or so minutes since then, but still...  
If Alcorin was here, then he would more than likely try and deceive them into thinking that they were safe, right?  
Or would he suspect that they suspected that?  
Takanosuke didn't really know, the thought made his head hurt a bit. Either way, Alcorin was definitely manipulative to a point where it couldn't be healthy for any normal person, and he would go to a lot of lengths to get people to do what he wanted them to do.  
The problem was, they had no idea what he could want them to do, if anything - after all, how could they?  
But if the psychopath was indeed setting this up for them, then they would have to be careful. And it was only right then, when they were about to decide to start off once again in their search, that they heard it.

From somewhere in the forest, somewhere in the direction they had come from, there was a long and loud howl that resounded through the trees - and both of them knew it came from a wolf.  
For a moment, both of them just stood there, staring in the direction where the howl continued for a few short seconds before fading, and where it was soon joined only a few seconds later by several more howls, indicating a pack.  
"Sakyo?..." Takanosuke questioned, glancing over to the redhead as he himself backed up a few steps from where he was standing. Sakyo stood there for a moment, not answering Takanosuke's hanging question of _what do we do?_ and watching over in the direction where the hollow calls had come from, listening...  
"Go." The red-and-white-haired blader said suddenly, backing away from the direction where he was staring.

"What?"

"Go!" Sakyo said more firmly, and Takanosuke didn't ask any more questions before he followed Sakyo's orders and took off running in the direction away from where the wolves could be heard, Sakyo following close behind him but keeping the slightly younger blader in front of him.  
The forest was almost entirely vacant of animals, all supposedly driven away by whatever aura that Alcorin supposedly gave off that they couldn't entirely feel - however, it seemed the wolves had decided to stay, for whatever reason.  
And they had apparently decided that they would make pretty good snacks.  
So both of them ran, neither of them having to glance back to see if the animals were still there, because they could hear the thudding of multi feet running across the dry moss and grass covered ground.  
Neither Takanosuke nor Sakyo had any idea of where they were running too, but it didn't matter as they run uphill, downhill, on slopes, jumped over logs, avoided low branches and bushes and rocks that stuck out of the ground, because all that mattered at the moment was losing the predatory canines. Sakyo made sure to keep close to his younger companion, determined not to lose him in the constant pursuit of the dogs behind them, and urging Takanosuke in whichever directions that he hoped would help them lose the wolves.  
However, nothing seemed to work. They kept appearing here and there, always behind them but sometimes coming from different directions to drive them one way or another.

Why were there so many of them?

Where were they all coming from?

Wolf packs weren't usually as big as this one seemed, were they?

Sakyo knew that if a pack as big as this one seemed to be was after them, than they were probably dead already - however, as much as the dogs chased them, feral yet hollow growling clearly being heard coming from their muzzles, none of them seemed to be too keen to attack just yet.  
Whenever they appeared somewhere in front or beside them, the two bladers would always be forced into another direction.  
Almost as if the beasts were trying to lead them somewhere, because, surely, they would have had half the mind to attack by now, wouldn't they?  
That thought was cut from his mind as 3 wolves appeared to the side-front of the two of them, Takanosuke letting out another one of his small yelps of fear and surprise before automatically taking off into the only other direction they were able to go, which was somewhat flat yet downhill at the same time.  
Sakyo followed closely behind him, always assuring that Takanosuke was never behind him in fear that he would lose him, while Takanosuke frequently glanced over his shoulder every now and then to make sure that Sakyo was still following - not that he doubted that he would be, but... He just wanted to make sure.

Then, as he looked forward once more, he felt his heart almost stop in his chest as he looked at what stood perhaps only 20 meters away from them.  
A dead end - a steep ridge of grass and rock that neither of them would be able to climb.  
Sakyo probably saw it too, but the redhead behind him urged him to keep going until they came it, and Takanosuke obeyed without any question towards him.  
The two bladers kept running the short distance that it took them to reach the end of their long pursuit, and as soon as they did, Sakyo whipped around almost at the speed of lightning, pulling out his launcher and his Bey possibly at the same time and connecting them all in one motion, having Dragoon ready to be launched whenever he gave the action.  
Takanosuke turned around as well, but a lot slower than Sakyo had, looking back fearfully at the large pack of wolves - dear god, how many were there?... Two dozen? More? - that had followed them out of the woods and now stood in a half-circle several meters in front of them.

The growling that had previously been heard was gone now, and the predators that stood in front of them menacingly just stared, not moving a muscle as they all watched the two of them with dead eyes that spoke of nothing.  
And as Takanosuke looked on in fear, almost cowering behind Sakyo who stood in front of him protectively, his vision blurred once again as it had so many times previously, black spots coating his sight and making his heart beat even faster than it already was, which probably wasn't at a very healthy rate.  
No, why now?...

Why now of _all_ times?..

His head hurt, and he brought a hand up to his blonde curls as he felt the familiar pain that he would still never be able to get used to.

 _Stone..._

What?... What was he seeing this time?

 _Stone... Rocks.. It was dark, but there was still light.._

Sakyo glanced backwards briefly towards the younger of them, his cold eyes laced with concern that would be barely visible to anyone else before focusing back on protecting the boy behind him. Takanosuke hadn't seen him look back at him, however, for his eyes were already occupied by things unwanted.

 _Somewhere dark... He was walking... There were rocks, it was all rock and stone.._

Everything was still except for the boy who gripped his eye, his face contorted in discomfort and pain, blood once more beginning to trail out of his nose, as Sakyo knew it would.  
And he knew that it would more than likely trigger the wolves, who looked on at the two of them with dead eyes and unreadable body language - something he still found so strange -, to attack.

 _Just enough light to see... A flat surface - no... A door.._

Takanosuke's pain refused to cease for moments longer, and in the few seconds that it may have taken the blonde to start to recover, Sakyo mentally grabbed hold of the necklace in his pocket and prayed to whatever god that might have been listening - this time without shame...

* * *

It was well into the afternoon after Zyro and the others had left Iwase on their road to the small town - village, more like, from what Maru had explained - of Sakuragawa, where they would then venture to Mount Tsukuba, where Alcorin hopefully was.  
Tsubasa had said that it wasn't 100% accurate, since he himself didn't know for sure, but they were all willing to take the chance - it was the best thing they had likely gotten since Kasama, before the Sainen-ji temple had been destroyed by 'unknown' means, so of course they were going to take it and go with it.  
It had been a few hours since they had left Iwase, and all of them were keeping up a fair pace in their journey to their destination, chattering with each other somewhat enthusiastically along the way.  
Benkei was noted for this especially, since he almost wasn't able to shut up about his excitement over knowing that Kyoya had helped them in this for the first hour.  
Fortunately, the younger bladers managed to get him to calm down, and he was now simply walking along with them with a small spring in his step that didn't go unnoticed.  
Kira was about the only person that remained entirely silent most of the time, simply following behind them all in a silence that wasn't too uncommon from the Bahamoote Blader when he was around all of them. He didn't even make any of his clever or snide remarks, which, although a bit unusual, nobody really complained about.

Even Zyro was a bit more chipper than he had as of late, which most of them were definitely glad to see after his somewhat strung out period of silence and grief.  
The raven in question walked side by side with Shinobu just as he had earlier, both of them talking from time to time with each other about different things, whether concerning their mission or not.  
Zyro was finally starting to feel a bit more positive about things than he had previously, even with the uncomfortable feeling that all of this was suddenly and still giving him.  
Despite feeling off about it, he tried not to let the others, especially Shinobu, worry too much.  
It might just be something like anxiety or nervousness that came with confronting Alcorin again, now that they knew where he supposedly was.  
Surely they were all feeling that, after what had occurred last time below the WBBA building.  
After all, it would be only natural after something like that, right?  
That thought didn't do any better at easing his mind, but he simply decided to push it aside for the time being.  
Why should he be the one to bring down everyone's spirits when they were finally getting somewhere in all of this?  
There was no reason to be, so he wasn't going to do that to them.

Walking and talking on with each other, Ren eventually glanced up towards the sky that was now beginning to turn a soft orange color.  
"Hey, how much farther is it to Sakuragawa?" The blonde asked, looking over towards Maru, who they were all pretty much looking to for directions, lately.  
"It shouldn't be too much farther." The pinkette said while looking over her shoulder, "The map said it was really close to Iwase, so we should be there pretty soon."

"I'd hope so..." Shinobu said quietly but still loud enough for everyone to hear, "I'd rather get this all over and done with as soon as possible myself."

"Suggesting he's actually there." Kira added offhandedly, which everyone almost rolled their eyes to. Kira was right, but even still, they chose to ignore the negativity for now and cross that bridge when they got to it.  
"Hey, we should make a code-word!" Ren exclaimed suddenly, drawing everyone's attention.  
"A code-word for what, exactly?" Kira asked, raising his eyebrow at the blonde-haired girl. Ren shrugged her shoulders.  
"You know, in case one of us every sees any danger, and then we can warn everybody else without alerting the thing that could cause said potential danger."  
Madoka furrowed her eyebrows for a moment before raising them slightly and looking over her shoulder at the rest of the group. "You know, that might not too bad of an idea." She said, "I mean, coming up with Alcorin and all, it could probably come in handy later on."

"So, basically, like a 'drop everything and run' kind of thing?" Kite asked as he looked at Ren in front of him, thinking he knew where she was going with this because, after all, they _did_ watch the same show.  
"Yeah, like that." She replied with a knowing smile.  
"Ooh, what should it be?" Eight asked, intrigued on the subject that had come up.  
There was brief silence between all of them for a moment, before Zyro finally spoke up. "Chicken?" He suggested with a small shrug.  
"Chicken?" Shinobu repeated with a slightly raised eyebrow.  
"I don't know, it seemed like we were throwing out ideas, here." Zyro said in his defense with a small shrug.  
"That could work!" Maru commented, now facing the rest of the group after deciding to turn around and walk backwards. Madoka clearly kept a wary eye on her, just to make sure that she didn't accidentally trip on something and fall backwards - undoubtedly, her backpack would more than likely cushion her fall if that happened, but the brunette's concern simply came naturally anyway.  
"I say 'bull' is a good one!" Benkei exclaimed fairly excitedly, and the rest of them (even Kira) sweat-dropped at the purple-haired man.  
It was a little typical of the Manager but at least it was a pretty decent idea. Chickens and bulls probably weren't exactly appropriate words when it came to dropping everything and running away, but did it really matter if they were symbolic with it at this point?

"Well," Ren started with a smile, "How about-"

"Ren, if you say Poughkeepsie, I swear..." Kite interrupted with a raised eyebrow. Ren stared at him from the corner of her eye for a moment before looking at him with a half-pout and a look of half-defiance.  
"Well, I'm not going to say it _anymore_." She replied somewhat sourly.  
Kira, at the back of the group, rolled his eye at the sheer stupidity - or at least from his point of perspective - of the topic that the rest of them had decided to talk about. However, he stayed silent.  
It was his job to keep them grounded and down to earth, yes, but he only did that when he deemed it necessary. Now... Wasn't necessarily one of those times, so he had no need to criticize them. If this continued all the way to Mount Tsukuba however, than he may have to do something about it. But as of now, he didn't really care.  
"I will revel in the day when we finally get what you two are talking about..." Madoka said with a small smile, looking back over her shoulder at the younger people in the group, save for Benkei.  
"Big bro watches this weird show on TV sometimes." Eight explained with a small smile, "It's sort of scary, but one of the guys on it is kind of funny."  
Madoka smiled a little wider in response to this, still not understanding exactly what it was but appreciating the vague explanation anyway.  
Despite her smile, which Zyro and many of the others were glad to see, Zyro knew from the night before that it was probably a little hard to keep up.  
But seeing Madoka smile even after everything they had been through through all of this managed to lift his spirits a little higher.

 _"Zyro..."_

And automatically, the world around him seemed to stop altogether, turning black and grey and white and sucking all life from it in a split moment where time seemed to stand still, as that voice he was all too familiar with rang in his head.

 _"Zyro, please..."_

It seemed to beg this time; still as quiet as a mouse, still softer than anything he knew of, but this time, there was desperation in that tone that may have always been there, but was far more evident this time around.

 _"Please... Come to..."_

It was weak... Weaker than he had ever heard it be, and probably wouldn't have been heard over the sounds of his friends' talking if time didn't seem so slow now. Why was it so faint?...

 _"Please, follow..."_

'Follow'? Follow what?...

 _"Go to him.. Please..."_

In those words, there was only desperation and pleading, that delicate voice _begging_ him to do what it asked even though he didn't really know what that was... What did it want him to do?

 _"Zyro... Please... Come to.. Me..."_ In that moment been moments, Zyro could have sworn that he knew that voice far more than he believed he did... And then everything was moving again.

Color returned to the world around him as time seemed to unfreeze itself, as all life and positivity came back to the world and allowed him to hear the sounds of his friends' voices once more, picking up on their conversation right where they had unknowingly left off.  
Zyro kept walking along with them for a few moments, staring forward with an almost vacant expression as he slowly yet surely regained himself from the experience that he had gone through more than once before - however, it was always just as mind-numbing every time.  
As the raven finally registered everything in his head, everything that he had just gone through, everything he had _heard_ from that delicate little voice that now seemed barely even able to muster the strength to speak, he stopped walking alongside the others, alongside Shinobu, and simply stared forward as the words that had been spoken came to his mind.  
He didn't know who that voice belonged too - he had never known since the day it had started roughly a month ago when all of this had first began.  
But now, somehow, he felt like he had known that soft little voice for his entire life, and although he wasn't entirely sure what exactly it wanted of him, another part of him certainly did. Which was probably why he turned his head to the left and gazed down into the forest area that was just off the road, the shrubbery not exactly thick but still somewhat difficult to see through. He didn't know why he thought it, or why he might've _known_ it if some part of him even did, but there was something there... Something that none of them could have been aware of otherwise.

"Zyro?" When his name was spoken, Zyro whipped his head back around to the rest of the group, who had all stopped about 3 meters away and were now looking at him, all of them with either questioning or concerned expressions. (Kira's expression was a little harder to decipher, though, seeing as how he was just standing there with his hands on his hips and a raised eyebrow)  
"Are you okay?" Shinobu asked in concern, after being the person who had first spoken his name.  
For several moments, Zyro had no idea how he was supposed to answer - he was as fine as he could be at the moment, he was, but...  
Without answering, the raven-haired boy looked back towards the area of forest that he had previously been looking into, his eyes fixated on that area because somehow he just _knew_ there was something there that they probably weren't - or maybe they were - supposed to see.  
He more than likely would have normally just wanted to brush off the feeling that plagued him, but right now there was just something that told him 'please don't ignore it', and some part of him was forcing him to listen.  
Or maybe he just really did want to listen, and he just wasn't realizing it. Whatever it was, though, he felt like he needed to go there.

"Hey, Earth to Zyro!" Ren called out to Ifraid Blader, having come up beside him while he was focused on the area of forest down off the side of the road.  
Zyro once more snapped out of his trance-like state for the second time in probably 5 minutes, and quickly looked over at the blonde that now stood beside him and was looking at him with a concerned expression and a raised eyebrow. It was then that he noticed that the entire group had actually walked back over to him and were now standing mainly on his right side.  
"Zyro, are you okay?" Madoka asked, worry evident in her forlorn eyes, "You're acting a bit weird."

"Um, yeah, uh..." The raven-haired blader began before looking down towards the ground slightly, unsure of how he was going to answer for his behavior. How exactly do you explain that you heard a voice that somehow stopped time for a few minutes and indirectly told you to go into the forest?  
As far as he was concerned, that really wasn't something that you just _say_.  
"Come on, Zyro, don't start spacing out again, stay with us." Ren said with a couple snaps of her fingers, keeping from going into that trance-like state that he had previously been in. Zyro raised his head towards her again, looking at her for a moment before glancing back to the forest again.  
".. I think there's something over there..." The raven said abruptly, gesturing to the area of forest that he was staring at and drawing everyone's attention towards it.  
"What do you mean?" Madoka asked curiously, eyebrows furrowed as she observed the area herself as closely as she could from where they were standing and saw nothing, "It doesn't look like there's anything there..."

"Is this a good time to say drop everything and run?" Ren asked almost absently, looking a little wary as she too looked around at the space where Zyro was staring. The Ifraid blader shrugged his shoulders slightly, glancing at the blonde for a moment at the comment before looking back towards where he had previously been focused several times before.  
"I-I dunno, I just..." Zyro struggled to explain, "There's something in there, and we need to check it out."

"Are we sure that's a good idea?" Benkei asked almost immediately.  
Shinobu nodded slightly in agreement. "Yeah, Zyro, I mean, with all that we know Alcorin can do, I don't think going to check 'something' out in the woods is a very good idea..."

"I know that." Zyro retorted sternly, turning his body slightly to look at Shinobu and show that he was serious, "But I _really_ feel that there's something in there we should see."

"And _what_ exactly makes you feel like that so suddenly?" Kira asked, his only eyebrow raised, "This better not be a result of your frequent moping."

"It's not." Zyro replied, "I don't know how I even _know_ there's something in there, but..." Zyro, at the moment, was almost at a loss for what to say. He didn't blame his friends were doubting and questioning him, since he would probably do the same to one of them if they started acting the way he was now.  
But even still, he wished they would at least _listen_ and try to understand, even though he himself didn't fully understand either... But as much as the raven wanted to try and explain to them, he knew it would probably not get them anywhere - so instead, he just went for it.  
"Nevermind, I'll just go check it out by myself." The blue-eyed boy said somewhat dismissively and with a firm resolution before stepping down the slight embankment on the side of the road to head in the direction of the forest.  
"Hey, Zyro!" Ren called out, a bit taken aback as most of them were at the Ifraid Blader's apparent impulsiveness.  
"Is he serious?" Maru questioned, staring in worry after the Ifraid Blader and looking about ready to after him herself.  
"Well, he _looks_ pretty serious." Eight responded to the pinkette, glancing over at her for a moment.  
"Zyro!" Madoka called after the boy in turn, and she saw him glance back over his shoulder once before he turned and continued heading in the direction of the forest area. None of them had any idea what could have gotten into Zyro so suddenly, since they knew that he was most definitely smart enough since all of this started to not be as impulsive as he seemed to be now.  
Whatever had happened in the last few minutes had definitely seemed to spark a sudden change in the ravenette that none of them understood.

For several more moments of watching Zyro walk off and leave them behind, Shinobu sighed and decided that at least _someone_ should go with the Ifraid Blader, to assure that he didn't get himself killed or walk into a trap that could more than likely be present.  
Without a word, the light-haired boy slid down the embankment as well and hurried up to catch with Zyro.  
"You too, Shinobu?" Ren asked incredulously, but didn't receive an answer from the other as he hurried up catch up with his best friend.  
Kira scoffed audibly, and shook his head slightly before calmly walking over and stepping down the embankment as well. "As insufferable as most of you can be, I doubt it's a good time to start splitting up." The multicolor-haired blader said irritably as he simply walked in the direction both Zyro and Shinobu were headed.  
Ren breathed through her nose and rolled her eyes slightly before muttering, "Fine..." and hurrying down to the ground. Kite and Eight soon followed, both knowing that Kira's statement of not splitting up was reasonable enough, and Benkei came after them as well.  
Maru and Madoka were the only ones that remained for a few moments before the elder of the two accepted the fact that the chances of getting all of them back to the road were slim to none, before she urged Maru to come along and they both hurried to catch up with the others.  
Soon enough, all of them had more or less gathered in their group circle again, all of them following Zyro, who, somehow, seemed to know exactly where he was going even though having never been here before - or at least not to their knowledge.

As much as they tried to ask Zyro what exactly was here, the Ifraid blader himself was always at a loss for what to say, claiming that he didn't really know either but that they should probably see it anyway.  
For all they knew, the pressure or Alcorin had finally gotten to Zyro, but, despite that, they weren't just going to abandon him and leave him to the wolves. Of course, they knew Kira probably would if he wasn't as seemingly dedicated to repaying Zyro as he was, but that was a different story.  
So with barely any words spoken, the remaining 9 of them followed the ravenette through the shrubbery of the forest area, stepping over a coupe logs that were around and walking through bushes that didn't produce thorns nor berries, all the while silently wondering what in the world had gotten into him.  
Zyro was also somewhat wondering the same thing, though on a level with far better understanding than he was really able to explain. He wasn't sure what was here, he wasn't sure _why_ he was so compelled to go to it, but he simply went with it.  
There was something here that they probably needed to see, or somewhere they needed to be, and, although he didn't know what that was, he needed to get to it. And he knew that they were now very close to it, eyeing the area ahead where he could see the ground steeped downward some more, and somehow he _knew_ that's where it was.

For the last few meters, the ravenette picked up his pace slightly and jogged over to the area that a part of him wanted so desperately to reach, and he heard his friends do the same behind him. He was silently grateful that they had decided to follow him with little explanation, for what they all came to look upon erased all doubts that hung in the air.  
What stood just down the short hill looked to be some sort of building, made completely from grey stone that somehow seemed to have kept a majority of the structure standing for however long it had been there, which definitely seemed to be a long time by the moss and ivy that covered most of the stones.  
Whatever the structure was originally meant to be was unknown from where they stood, and possibly lost to time with the looks of the effects of the elements that had more than likely pelted it over the last century or so.  
"Well.." Ren said awkwardly in the silence that plagued them all, "I guess there is something here.."

"Oh you don't say..." Kira replied sarcastically, almost as an automatic response. The rest of them simply rolled their eyes a bit and decided to ignore him.  
"Zyro, how did you even know this was here?" Madoka asked, looking at the Ifraid blader for a moment before looking back over her shoulder, "You can't see it from the road..."  
Once more, Zyro just shrugged his shoulders, an apologetic look of hopelessness present on his own face. "I-I don't really know, I just kinda... Did." He said unhelpfully, and Ren, although still looking at the structure on the bottom of the small hill, raised an eyebrow.  
"Between _that_ -" She gestured to the worn-down building, "-and _that_ -" In relation to what Zyro had said as an unhelpful answer, "-I'm a little unsettled."

"Well, yeah, but..." Maru began, moving to stand just at the edge of the hill before it sloped downwards, and Madoka made sure to watch her so that she didn't go tumbling forward, "What is this even doing here? And what do you think it is?"

"Something really old, obviously..." Benkei said as a way of saying 'for starters'.

"I just..." Zyro started again, trailing off for a moment as he looked at the building, "... I feel like it's something we need to check out."

"And why is that, per say?" Kira questioned, arms crossed in front of his barely concealed chest.

"I don't know..." Zyro said with a shake of his head, "There's just... Something about it, and I don't know what.."

"Do you think this has anything to do with those sites centered around the God of Destruction?" Eight suggested, looking up at the taller bladers around him.  
"That's kind of what I was thinking." Maru said with a small smile at the blue-haired boy.  
"If that's the case..." Shinobu began quietly, "Then I don't think there's too much of a chance of anyone being home.. Considering that we know he might likely be at Mount Tsukuba."

"Unless Alcorin decided to take it for his own anyway." Madoka pointed out, "But by the looks of it, I don't see why he would really _want_ too..."  
Kite shrugged his shoulders, looking over towards the brown-haired woman. "Like Zyro said, it _could_ be worth looking around." The Leviathan Blader reasoned, "From the looks of it, it doesn't seem like anyone's been home in a long time."  
Madoka sighed through her nose, looking down slightly. "Yeah, I guess..." She said slowly, taking a few moments to think over the matter thoroughly before saying anything else.  
At this point, they already had a pretty good idea of where Alcorin was - the mountain no more than maybe a mile or two or so away from them, so this place probably wouldn't serve too much of a purpose for the psychopath from the looks of it. Still, it was probably close enough to Mount Tsukuba for Alcorin to take some sort of interest in it, perhaps for some form of look out or something. Then again, there really wasn't much to see.  
She wasn't sure how Zyro had even known this place was here in the first place, and the thought was still a little unsettling, but... Perhaps it _could_ be worth taking a look at. Making up her mind, the shop owner finally answered.

"Alright." She said with a hint of a sigh, "I guess it wouldn't hurt to check it out." The brunette saw Zyro looked back at her with a grateful look on his face, something that said 'thanks for...'... She didn't know what exactly, but probably for trusting him more than anything.  
In response, she gave a warm smile back to the Ifraid Blader, a mutual understanding passing between them for a moment before all of them began making their way down the hill. All of them remained wary of the structure before them, however, keeping in mind not to let their guard since anything could happen at this point. Kira kept muttering something about them being somewhat idiotic, or that they were really putting a target on themselves for probably no reason, and they knew that he was partially right.  
Even so, no one really responded to him as they all made their way to the ivy-covered walls of the ruined building. Nature had sure done its part in constructing the place over the years, since the vines and other greenery seemed to be part of what still held it together.  
The group made sure to stay together, whether as a whole or smaller groups, and walked around the perimeter of the building, all knowing that it would probably be wise to inspect the whole of it before anything else.

Maru walked around one side of the building, gazing up the walls of the unidentified building and keeping a look out for anything that could possibly signify some sort of danger, while Madoka and Ren both followed closely behind her, inspecting the structure themselves and trying to make some sense of _what it was doing here_.  
The three of them made their way to the collapsed side of the wall of the building, which lead inside the structure that wasn't necessarily _inside_ considering there was barely a roof to speak of over top of them.  
Collapsed pieces of columns littered the stone floor, appearing to have once held up the no longer existent ceiling. There was still one whole one standing though, at the far right handed end of the rectangular room where there the roof was still a bit in tact.  
"Wow, this place got wrecked." Ren pointed out climbing over the large cylinder of what used to be one of the aforementioned columns.  
"I wonder by what, though..." Maru stated curiously, "If this is one of those things that Nemesis used to have, I wouldn't be surprised if there were people that tried to tear it down..."

"Looks like they gave up after awhile, though." Ren replied, gesturing to the fairly large portion of the structure that still remained standing, "Guess they really didn't have the technology to demolish buildings as thoroughly as we do now."  
Stepping over several pieces of debris that had been laying around for who-knows-how-long, Madoka made her way over to the opposite side of the building from where they were standing, to the end where there was still part of the roof intact, to investigate, letting both Ren and Maru inspect what they would themselves.  
It was a little darker over in the other end of the rectangular building, from the shade of both the trees overhead and the small bit of ceiling, but there was thankfully still enough light to see. Of course, there wasn't too much other than the still intact column in the corner and the ivy and moss that covered a good portion of the walls.  
However, the greenery didn't cover _all_ of the walls, which still allowed the brunette to see what was hidden underneath.  
They looked like engravings of some sort, though it was hard to tell from how much the stone had been weathered down over the years.  
Turquoise eyes looked up along the walls, looking over the thin vines that coated grey stone.

Was there more engravings under it?

Did they take up the whole wall?

Madoka looked back at the few that she could see, seeing them seeming go up towards the roof and half of them disappearing behind the ivy and moss that coated the walls.  
Well, there was only one way to find out, she supposed.  
Gingerly, making sure not to disturb the rock to much and have it all come crumbling down on top of her because it was definitely possible that nature was the only thing holding it together, Madoka tore and brushed away some of the ivy and moss that covered the walls, revealing more the crude inscriptions engraved into it like some sort of picture or _pictures_.  
If there were words that went with the vague drawings they had long since been rendered illegible, but that didn't really matter.  
Knowing things like this, the words might have not even been in Japanese at all, or at least in some form of it that she wasn't capable of understanding.

"Hey, what are you doing, Madoka?" Ren asked in curiosity with a raised eyebrow, observing Madoka's current process of scraping away most of the greenery that covered the far wall.  
The brown-haired woman looked back over her shoulder as she ceased in her work for a moment. "It looks like there's something carved into this wall over here." The shop owner explained, "Most of this stuff seems to covering it though, so I'm trying to see what it is."

"Like inscriptions?" Maru asked in a somewhat subdued voice that came about suddenly. Madoka looked over at her apprentice and smiled comfortingly and warmly at her.

"Yeah, I think so." She said gently. Maru simply nodded, simply standing there for a moment before finally deciding to make her way over to help her teacher with the task. Madoka looked at her fondly before returning to her previous activity, pulling away some of the moss that come up from between a few cracks.  
She wouldn't say anything about Maru's slightly subdued nature all of a sudden, because she was fairly sure she didn't need to ask the pink-haired girl what it was about.  
After all, the last time the small girl had worked with inscriptions and engravings of any kind had been in the Mist Mountain Shrine, to where she had returned with nothing to her own agonizing disappointment.  
Madoka understood Maru's still lingering grief over Dynamis well enough to respect that she probably wouldn't want to talk about it, and simply continued with what she had started.  
Ren also came over to help, tugging at the leaves and thin vines and tearing them away with ease.

Within only a couple minutes the three of them managed to pull away as much of the ivy and moss and vines as they were able to reach and get off, before stepping back and looking upon the new portion of the wall that had previously been hidden from their eyes.  
"That looks pretty cryptic." Ren commented, scanning over the pictures that were formed on the wall in a confusing fashion, but were still in tact enough for them to somewhat make out what it was.  
Madoka nodded slightly in response, feeling a small shiver run through her body as her gaze fell on near the bottom of the wall near the floor, where a large, distorted figure of... Something... stood menacingly.  
She knew at that moment what it was, because she had had the sight of that being engraved in her mind for years as the inscriptions had been engraved in the stone, never truly able to put the memory behind her.

"Did you 3 find something?" Came the voice of Shinobu from the side, and Maru looked over to the side where the light-haired blader, as well as Zyro and Kira, was looking over the lowest standing point of where the wall had collapsed.

"We think so." The pink-haired Bey Mechanic said, "There's a bunch of pictures on the wall that we found underneath everything."  
The three of them seemed to take it as somewhat of a good sign, and Zyro called out to Benkei, Kite, and Eight to come and see what they had found as well. The 3 boys then came around and up beside the girls, looking upon the picture themselves.  
Zyro's eyes almost immediately widened as he took in the form of the picture near the bottom of the wall. "Is that...?" He trailed off for a moment, blinking a couple of times and seeming to speculate to himself just to assure he wasn't getting what he was assuming wrong.  
"Yeah..." Madoka answered, already knowing what the rest of them were thinking, "Nemesis."

At one time, the picture might have been perfectly etched into the stone, not a flaw to be seen as it told some sort of story without falter and with clear accuracy.  
However, time and the elements had taken its toll on the rock, and, while it was still quite eligible to a point, had morphed the beautiful and perfect pictures into crude and vague engravings that looked to have been chipped away at, tainting the perfection that had once been. From what they were able to make out, it had at least _something_ to do with Nemesis, which could only lead them to believe that this place was indeed one of those old shrines or temples that had originally been dedicated to the now deceased god.  
At the top of what Madoka, Ren, and Maru had uncovered, there was a picture of 3 people, with either flowers, wavy lines, or what appeared to be bone-like objects surrounding each one of them.  
Below them was a fairly large circle, which they could only assume was the earth, from the way the lines etched through it looked a fair bit like the continents - or at least to some degree.  
Below that were supposedly more pictures of the three people, though what exactly they were supposed to depict was left a mystery, the stone much too damaged to be able to make out anything solid.  
Farther below, just above the crude depiction of Nemesis - that was actually very accurate to what most of them had seen 7 years ago - there was what looked like a swirl or something, divided up into three lines with circles or something akin on either end of them, the spiral itself seeming to somewhat angle downward into the picture of Nemesis, indicating something or another that had probably been very clear at the time, but was barely so now.

"Well, looks like the kiddies were right." Kira said as he placed a hand on his hip, his only eyebrow raised in a look of somewhat acknowledgement.  
"Told ya!" Maru said proudly with a smile.  
"Hey, what did you find?" Benkei asked as he, Kite, and Eight all came through the destroyed end of the building and up behind the rest of them.  
Madoka looked back at them and then looked back towards the inscriptions on the stone. "We're not too sure, but it turns out this place really is one of those places where people used to worship Nemesis." The brunette nodded, and Eight and Maru both did a silent high-five at managing to figure out, even though it had only been a guess at the time - still, they had been right!

"Looks like it's supposed to tell a story." Kite stated, his blue eyes making there way up and down the wall several times, "Hell if I can understand what it's supposed to be telling though."

"Well, it has something to do with Nemesis, we know that." Ren said, "And those three people up there, whoever they are." The blonde gestured to the three people at the top of the stone tapestry. Most of them turned their gazes up to the top of what they could see of the wall again, inspecting the three figures with confusion in interest.  
"It's probably just me," Kira began, rolling one of his wrists off the side, "But two of them could probably be life and death."

"Well, flowers and bones are pretty opposite from each other, I guess..." Shinobu said in vague agreement.  
"So, life and death, maybe..." Zyro started, inspecting the three people at the top and feeling his fingers unconsciously twitch for some reason, "... But who's the one in the middle?"  
Kira shrugged his bare shoulders. "I don't know, you can figure it out." The multicolor-haired blader said bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest instead.

"Life, death, and Nemesis... And someone else." Madoka observed aloud before glancing at Zyro beside her, "Zyro, how did you know this place was here? Have you been here before?"

The raven shook his head. "No." He said simply, " _I_ didn't even know this place existed before now... I just kind of _knew_ I guess."

"And isn't it quite fortunate that you did."

Almost immediately, everyone froze, hearts almost stopping in unison at the voice that came from behind them - although maybe Benkei was the exception, because he had not been there at the time, but the rest of them knew.  
Even as brave as they managed to be, even as defiant they were against the being that had come into everyone's lives and torn everything to shreds, that voice was always able to constrict hearts like a snake, and it was _always_ unmistakable.  
Some hurriedly, some slowly, all of them turned around, and came face to face with the man that they had dearly wished they had been the one to perish long ago.  
He still looked the same as ever: shoulder-length indigo hair, bangs parted twice, dark brown ( _dark brown?..._ ) eyes the were reminiscent of a cat, and fair skin, dressed in that same trench-coat, those same boots, and the same white pants that looked to have never had a stain on them. And just as any time before, that smile - perhaps once sweet and angelic but now tainted by whatever dark force had come upon it - was plastered on his lips, a small giggle emanating from his throat and chilling all of them to the bone.

"Nice to see all of you again." Alcorin said almost politely, but with no less than a malicious intent behind his eyes that seemed so different for some reason, "Did you miss me?"

"What are you doing here?" Madoka asked, voice quivering without her control at the sudden shock and fear that had come over here.

"I would've thought that would be quite simple for you to figure out." Alcorin replied with a slight tilt of his head, "You know, this place originally belonging to my father dearest and all... But I'm really not _too_ surprised that you found it, because, _really_ , you all seem to get lucky out of no where."

"Did you plan this?" Shinobu asked cautiously, his stance just as wary as anyone else's and seeming vaguely prepared to fight if he had too.

"Maybe, maybe not..." Alcorin replied unhelpfully, "But, again, it _is_ quite fortunate that you ended up here. For _me_ , anyway." With seemingly no care in the world, Alcorin walked a little off to the side, his boots tapping gently on the ruined stone floor. "It really wouldn't have done any good if I were to try and get rid of all of you in populated areas, now would it? I mean, really, who expects to see a bunch of dead and mangled bodies on the side of the road?" Slowly, he turned back again to face them. "But that's _besides_ the point... After all, you all really are quite persistent, aren't you? I would've originally expected you to all break down crying in miserable tears after figuring out that you all managed to help me kill dear little Gingka in cold blood."

"Don't talk about him like that!" Madoka demanded without really thinking, and Alcorin simply giggled in response.  
"Aw, and why not?" The demi-god asked in a sickeningly sweet voice that still rang with that undertone that they almost weren't able to stand, "You were his friends, weren't you? I would've thought that _you_ of all people would've liked to talk about him."

"Not after what you did to him..." Zyro said in a somewhat quiet voice, but still loud enough to here. A hysteric giggle escaped the blue-haired man, an amused look in his dark brown ( _They shouldn't be dark brown, should they?..._ ) eyes.  
His laughter died down almost as soon as it started, and that distinct red hue appeared behind his eyes even if only dimly.  
"Maybe so..." The man started, "But remember... _You_ could've _done_ something, Zyro."

The raven-haired boy's eyes widened slightly, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach appearing out of nowhere as that single moment just a couple weeks ago came back to him. When he had looked into 'Gingka's' eyes, and seen that there was something off... But he had said nothing.  
He had done nothing, because he hadn't even thought about it.  
Shinobu, Maru, Ren, Kite, Madoka, and Eight all glanced over at him, and immediately saw how pale his face had suddenly gone.  
Alcorin's eyes simply narrowed, and he smiled sweetly ( _..Dreadfully..._ ).

" _Exactly_..." The sociopath continued, "You looked at me, and you _knew_ that something was wrong. You _knew_ that there was something missing, because as much as our eyes look alike, there's a _big_ difference between him and me... But you ignored that. And from then on, none of you were even able to tell the difference... Looks like you weren't as good of friends with him as you originally thought, now are you?"  
Madoka bit the inside of his lip, preventing herself from throwing out another outburst that she might come to regret, refusing to give the bastard what he wanted, even though he might already be getting what he wanted at the moment.  
Maru glanced up to her teacher, and placed a hand on her leg, gently fisting her small hands in the fabric of Madoka's jeans.  
"And even after all of that, I decided to be considerate enough to let all of you go..." Alcorin said, taking a brief moment to look at his nails for no reason in particular before looking back at them with narrowed eyes, dark brown ( _They_ shouldn't _be dark brown..._ ) irises dimly illuminated by the red glow that haunted dreams, "You really should've taken that and left, but you _didn't_..." Another giggle escaped his lips. "You humans really _are_ so interesting."

"What do you even want, you psychopath?!" Ren demanded, one hand slightly behind her and looking ready to grab her launcher if - or when - the need came to it.  
"Didn't I already tell you that?" Alcorin asked, shrugging his slim shoulders almost casually, "I'm just looking to fix what my father failed to do..." After those words, Alcorin's smile abruptly left his lips, and for a moment, he looked more frightening than he did with it, "And like hell I'll any of you ruin that."

"And like hell _we're_ going to to just let you destroy everything that Nemesis almost did all those years ago." Shinobu said defiantly, and many of them were somewhat impressed that he - usually the quiet one, or at least before all of this started - was the one who was the least patient in hearing what Alcorin was saying.  
Without another word, the light-haired blader swiftly pulled out both his launcher and Salamander, connecting the two of them together almost as fast as he had brought them out and aiming directly towards the demi-god only meters in front of them.  
Almost as soon as he did that, Ren did the same, having already been ready to take the offensive and getting Phoenix ready for battle in a matter of seconds.  
Benkei let out a fairly loud exclamation of 'bull!' before whipping out the Bey of the same name - something that Madoka hadn't even known he still kept on him for all of these years.  
Kite did the same after the large man, Eight following the steps of his older brother as well, and, eventually, Zyro managed to push at least a small bit of his anxious nausea aside to get out Ifraid as well, though his face was still pale beyond his natural skin color.  
Lastly, Kira did the same, bringing out Bahamoote but with seemingly less enthusiasm than the rest of them did - but considering Kira, that could almost be called natural.

Truly, the scene really was reminiscent of what ha happened the last time they had encountered the psychopath, even though there were some here now who hadn't been there before.  
For several moments, everything stood still between everyone that stood on the long forgotten grounds of worship for a god that no longer existed, the world around all of them seeming so much darker now even though light was still pouring through the tops of the trees from overhead. Dark brown eyes highlighted gently by red simply started at them for several moments, the silence seeming nearly unbreakable as the tension hung thickly in the air.  
Only after several moments of nothing but stillness, that damned smile returned to Alcorin's lips, his eyes closing for a moment as though relishing in a single moment that he wished would last forever.  
"You really are all so simple-minded..." The blue-haired god stated before opening his eyes again, "I would've thought at least _one_ of you able to figure out that if I really wanted to destroy this world, I probably would've done it by now."  
All of their eyes (or, in Kira's case, _eye_ ) widened slightly at that, confusion suddenly making its way into the air as they all still stared challengingly at the man before them that could confuse them like nothing else.  
" _Maybe_ dear Gingka would've been a little bit of a problem," Alcorin went on, a malicious intent in his accursed voice that dug into their skulls by force and gave them no other choice but to listen to what could have been the equivalent of hell, "But I assure you, I wouldn't have drawn it out _nearly_ as much as I did if I really did want to. Besides, I'm one of the idiots that happens to live on this planet, aren't I?" At that last sentence, the demi-god raised an eyebrow slightly, a small chuckle making its way from him and inevitably to their ears.

"So..." Madoka started, a confused look on her face, trying to calculate just what the _hell_ this sociopath was trying to get at, "...If you don't want to destroy everything, then what are you even _after_."

"Nothing you _really_ need to know about." Alcorin responded teasingly, "In fact, I already had it the moment I tricked you into thinking _I_ was actually little Hagane..." Zyro bit the inside of his lip, the sense of dread that had settled itself in his stomach making him feel like he needed to vomit, but he desperately drew down the urge.

What was Alcorin even talking about?

What did he mean he already had what he had wanted?

Did that make all of this _pointless_?... That couldn't be right, could it?

"Which, of course, begs the question..." Alcorin went on even more, his hands clasped behind him and seeming to rock back and forth on his heels like a child, "'Why would I even bother with you if I already had it'? Well, that's _simple_..." Once more, the smile faded from his face, and a sheet of ice almost seemed to cascade over those soft yet terrifying features, "... Because if you really _were_ able to get to me, you wouldn't leave until you had what I've worked too hard for."  
Though the cold, icy expression still remained, the bluenette's eyes narrowed sharply in a show of muted anger that looked to be no where near as dangerous as it actually was, and for a brief moment, they all considered him more frightening than ever.

Before Alcorin could say anything further - _if_ he had been going to say anything further - the ground below them jolted and shook, jostling all of them off balance and barely letting them be able to catch them footing.  
Even Alcorin moved to steady himself, unfolding his arms from behind his back and putting them just a few inches away from his sides to maintain his balance.  
Everyone who had originally drawn their Beys all stumbled with the sudden shock of the earth rumbling beneath their feet, Eight actually falling over on his back with Orochi still docked, though quickly able to get back up and steady himself with Kite's help, his own Bey already tucked away inside his coat.  
Madoka and Maru both grabbed onto each other, steadying themselves, and Kira swiftly put Bahamoote away back into his belt before stumbling over into Benkei, who didn't really seem to mind as he himself tried to focus on balancing himself.  
Ren stumbled back into the pillar behind her, feeling the wind being knocked out of her at the unexpected impact while trying to hold onto her Phoenix at the same time.

What was happening?

This couldn't be Alcorin's doing!

There was no way - even _with_ his powers - that he could just make the ground shake beneath his feet like it was nothing! A deafening sound cracked through the air, the ground jolting violently in response, causing Shinobu to stumble forward and fall almost face-first onto the stone floor.  
"Shinobu!" Zyro exclaimed in worry, but was unable to do anything for his friend as the same cracking sound shot through the air, making their ears ring and the earth jolt violently once more. Shinobu just decided that it might as well be safer on the ground, grasping onto a flaw in the stonework for support and covering one of his ears to try and protect himself from the horrific sound that filled the air.  
Ren decided, just as Shinobu had, that staying against the pillar she had fallen back against was the safest option at this point, save for the fact that the sound of breaking rock and tumbling stones kept exploding in her ears, and she gave a cry of pain as it sounded again, the ringing in her ears stronger than anything else.  
Desperate to see just what in the _world_ was causing that horrific sound, Ren looked over to the side, to just in front of the stone tapestry they had found, and unconsciously screamed at the sight before her.

The stone floor had fallen away, as though into a dark abyss that no one could have ever known was directly below it, the ground that _should_ have been there non-existent, and instead replaced with an endless casm that _glowed_ a reddish-purple color, the light seeming to shoot straight downward forever, seeming to have no walls, nothing but endlessness.  
Everyone heard her cry, but nobody was able to turn around to see what she was screaming about, though undoubtedly concerned about her more than anything.  
The only one who saw what she was talking about was Alcorin, who still just stood facing the group, leaning against the ruined part of the wall behind him that still managed to stand, but doing nothing but simply staring at, forward, beyond them with an unreadable expression.  
The loud cracking resounded through the air again, and, this time, Ren saw more rock break away, the mysterious fissure becoming larger with every pebble of stone that fell away into the endless abyss.

What the hell was going on?!

There was no way this could be happening!

What was happening?!

Unknowing of what to do, Ren turned her eyes away and pressed herself as hard as she could against the pillar behind her, the hard, jagged edges of stone digging into her back, squeezing her eyes shut tightly with tears rimming the edge of her eyelashes, and willing it all to just _stop_.  
Make it _stop_.

 **"COME..."**

For Ren, everything really did stop as that voice pulsated inside her brain, making it impossible for her not to hear it.  
Her eyes shot open wide, the loose tears that had come to them falling down her paling cheeks as she comprehended what she had just heard.

No... Not again... Not again, anything but that!

 **"Ren!... Hear my voice!.."**

Oh she heard it alright... And she wished to god that she wasn't able too...  
Where was it coming from?  
Nowhere?  
Everywhere?  
Around her?  
Inside of her?  
 _Where?_

 **"REN... Come to me!"**

Breathing slowly, all of time seeming to have slowed and allowed her to be the only moving creature, Ren looked over towards the quickly widening fissure in the ground, threatening to swallow them all.  
There... It... It was coming from there, wasn't it?

 **"Here me now, and come!"**

She knew the voice, it was unmistakable... She had heard it before, all those weeks ago, when she had lost against Genjuro in the Bridge To The Future tournament.

It was the _same, exact_ voice, but... It seemed so different...

 **"Come to me, Ren! Come!..."**

It seemed so much more... Friendly...

 **"Here me, Ren!"**

So much more... Welcoming...

 **"Come to me NOW!"**

This time, after having fought against the voices that plagued her nightmares ever since that day that seemed so long ago, Ren's will gave way - and she let it.

The ground continued to shake beneath them, jolting violently every now and then and shooting out that accursed sound that they should have been able to get used to, but they weren't. There was no escape from it, no escape from the shaking all around them, and, somehow, everyone except for Shinobu managed to stay on their feet, even if Maru was hanging onto Madoka's leg as tightly as she could, even if Eight was being partially held by his older brother, _even_ if Kira was unconsciously leaning back against Benkei and both of them seeming to absently try and support each other.  
The light-haired blader breathed hard, his hands around his head shaking, his entire _body_ shaking without his control, and there was nothing any of them could do about that.  
He felt the ground jolt again from underneath them, making his own body jump up in the air about an inch before coming back down just as quickly, grunting slightly as he hit the hard rock beneath him again.  
He heard Ren's scream, just as much as he was sure the rest of them had, but as far as he knew, none of them were able to probably look back at her and see what she was screaming about without losing balance or getting their ear drums knocked in.  
Still, though, he was already on the ground, so maybe he could look back and see if everything was okay.

Deciding to do just that, the Salamander blader twisted half of his body as quickly as he could, bringing his hand away from his ear and risking the cracking sound that would undeniably shoot through the air once more.  
Lush green eyes looked through the couple pairs of legs of his friends that stood behind him, all of them still struggling to keep their balance and not able to focus on just what was causing the shaking in the first place.  
But Shinobu looked past his friends, looked for Ren, and finally, his eyes landed on the back wall that they had originally been trying to decipher - and what he saw filled his heart with fear and caused him to scream upon reflex.

"REN!" The light-haired blader shouted, staring at the blonde at the very back of them all, who stood there with her body straight and proper, as if the world stood perfectly still for her alone while it shook violently around the rest of them.  
But the part that had scared him the most, the part had caused him to cry out her name, was the fact that she stood at the very edge of some sort of small fissure that had been made through the stone, a strange red-purple-white light pouring through it and illuminating both the back wall, and Ren's face, which showed nothing but blank eyes and a stoic expression as she stared down into what he could only assume to be an endless abyss.  
The rest of them had heard the Salamander blader shout their blonde friend's name, the sound ringing through the air for a few moments just as Ren's previous scream had, and the exclamation of fear and shock that resounded in Shinobu's voice, Zyro, Madoka, Maru, Kira, and Benkei found it in them to turn around in both concern and alarm to see what the light-haired blader was yelling it.  
When their eyes (or _eye_ ) turned towards the back of the structure, they were greeted with the same sight that Shinobu had seen before, and before anyone could say or do anything in response to this, to try and pull her away from the edge of the abyssal fissure that none of them had ever seen the likes of, to snap her out of her trance-like state, Ren tipped her body forward - and fell.

"REN!" Zyro cried out in alarm, lunging forward and making a grab for her wrist to try and stop her from plunging down into what looked like endlessness despite the shaking, but missed, and was left with only air.  
The Ifraid blader fell onto the stone, his head and right arm hanging over the edge of the pit that Ren had fallen into, finding himself staring down into something that looked like it would never end, and catching only a wisp of blonde hair before it disappeared from his sight entirely.  
"Ren!" Madoka cried in alarm, shocked at the sudden actions of the blonde that they knew so well, and she felt Maru grasp onto her leg tighter.  
What the hell was happening?

How could Ren had just lept into that pit like it was no big deal?!

What even was that thing?

Despite the violent shaking that wouldn't stop, despite all the shock and confusion that had managed to happen in just a few short minutes (... _Had it really been minutes? It felt like hours..._ ), Shinobu managed to just barely get up off the floor, unwilling to just lay there and wait for whatever fate awaited all of them.  
 _Someone_ had to go after Ren, even if she was already long gone by now - however, whatever was down there was probably a much better fate than whatever Alcorin would do to them.

Staggering to his feet, the Salamander blader shakily made his way past Madoka and Maru and Kite and Eight (two of which had also seemed to witness the action of Ren falling) and steadied himself as best as he could against the pillar that Ren had originally been leaning against, staring down into the ethereal form of an endless abyss that was both mystifying and terrifying.  
The light-haired boy looked over at Zyro, who was on his needs and grasping onto the edge of the pit that Ren had fallen into, staring down with a conflicted expression on his face - obviously, he was trying to decide what to do.  
Zyro caught his gaze, and they both looked at each for a very brief moment, glancing over into the abyss once before looking back at each other, a silent agreement passing between them as they both seem to understand what it was that they had to do. Without any other words, and with the knowledge that the others were watching, still undoubtedly in shock from what Ren had done, both of them breathed in and jumped into the fissure together, immediately being surrounded by the same light that they had seen from above, and soon losing themselves in endlessness.

"Zyro!"

"Shinobu!"

Several voices rang out at almost the same time before another loud _crack!_ rang through the air, and this time they all saw the ground around the opening in the earth crumble away.  
"You've gotta be..." Kira began and finished irritably to himself before he pushed away from Benkei and, despite stumbling from the shaking and the rumbling of the ground below him, plunged into the the fissure himself, silently swearing to himself that if they all died from this he was going to kill them.  
"B-bull!" Benkei shouted, hands clenched into fists as a look of determination suddenly exploded onto his features, and he too went and fell down into the earth. All that was left was Madoka, Maru, Kite, and Eight, and, soon enough, the Unabara brothers nodded in silent agree, both of them running, stumbling, and then jumping into the fissure that had been made in the ground, clasping onto each other tightly every step of the way.

Now there was only Madoka and Maru, who knew they had to make a decision quickly before anything else came crashing down. It only took both of them to look back at the form of Alcorin, staring at them with an expression of anger, surprise, and, above all, questioning, for them to make their decision. After all, whatever could be down there, whatever endlessness there was, it _had_ to be better than sticking around with that psychopath.  
Madoka reached down and swiftly grabbed Maru's hand, pulling her leg away from the grasp of her student before both of them ran and stumbled just like everyone else towards the crack that had opened up, and was even still opening.  
There was a moment's hesitation, a moment where hearts pounded against rib-cages and at least one of them felt like they were going to be sick, before they both clasped each other's hands tightly and jumped, Maru closing her eyes to block off the sight of actually falling.  
Madoka kept her eyes open, watching the abyssal tunnel of red-purple-white light swallow them all, gravity pulling both of them down into the pit that they had walked into, and devouring them whole in an endlessness that could more than likely give them blissful eternity...

* * *

Alcorin simply stared forward, dark brown ( _Not dark brown, not his..._ ) eyes gazing at where the group of 10 had originally stood, and now looking at nothing but an empty building in front of him.  
As soon as those two - Madoka and Maru, correct? - had jumped into... whatever that was... the fissure had closed behind them, and the shaking had stopped, the rock just as intact as it had originally been before he had arrived.  
The wall on the far side was still relieved of some of the nature that covered it, the place was still in ruins just had it had been. There was nothing hinting towards that anything had ever been opened up, nothing indicating that something had gone on here. Everything was just still. Perhaps, if he was right, it _would_ be able to play out in his favor... Of course, if that damned little child wished to say anything about it, than that may be a bit of a problem.  
Perhaps he _was_ more devious than he had originally thought. Eyes narrowed for a moment, glaring for a moment longer at the place where Zyro and his friends had originally stood, before turning around and walking out of the ruined structure.  
However, the only thing that left it was a raven, flapping its wings and aiming up to soar into the sky, dead, dark brown eyes staring at nothing as it heard its call...

* * *

For what may have been only several moments, but felt like an eternity, Zyro felt as though he were floating through the endless nothing they had jumped into and that had devoured them.  
Almost all of them could have sworn the same thing, everything having suddenly gone black, everything being pulled away from them as they fell deeper and deeper into the abyss they had so willingly fallen into - or at least, they thought it was the same thing.  
Maybe it wasn't. Zyro wasn't sure at the moment.  
All he was sure of was that he felt as light as air, felt his head swimming as though he were floating through a vast expanse of the ocean that he would never drown in. For the briefest of moments, he just let himself forget everything.  
Stopped worrying about the troubles of the world that had plagued them for so long and simply allowed himself to _be_. Whatever that really meant.  
It was the most peaceful he had ever felt, the most serene feeling he had ever come across, and he wished, in those few moments of tranquility, that he could stay like that for the rest of existence.  
Through the darkness, though, he could see distant colors. Colors that were soft, strong, light, heavy. They were distinct, easy to identity, yet they blended in with everything, hiding and morphing with other colors.  
But there was one color alone that always seemed directly in front of his eyes, faint, but clear. It was like a mixture of purple and red, like a fushia color, but not quite..

Where was it coming from?

Was it just a wisp of something else that existed in this endless eternity?

Not living, not dead, not anything but itself?

No, that could not be it.  
These colors could not be apart of this sweet darkness, this blissful peace that seemed almost too perfect. As much as he wanted to stay, to lose himself in forever, he wanted - no, _needed_ \- to know where those colors, those lights, came from.

And in his will to do so, Zyro opened his eyes.

Slowly of course, his eyelids fluttering heavily, almost feeling like they were stuck together, but opening none the less.  
His vision was blurry for a few moments, plagued with a drowsiness that was almost pleasant - he hadn't even realized he had fallen asleep.  
Or maybe he hadn't. Zyro wasn't sure, but as soon as his vision cleared, he was greeted with a clear sky tinted light purple, not blue.

Why was the sky purple?

Surely it wasn't supposed to be like that, right?

Where was he? Where were _they_?

His whole body stiff and aching, Zyro slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position, every muscle he had protesting loudly.  
The Ifraid Blader groaned softly as he slowly sat up, clutching at the soft ground underneath him that slid through his hands, the grains sliding carelessly about - sand. Why was he sitting on sand?  
Blue sand, no less!

Zyro's blue eyes looked up from the just as blue sand, looking up towards the sky once again from where they had fallen. Had there really been a fall? The Ifraid Blader looked directly above them, where they had possibly fallen from. If they had fallen into anything, it definitely didn't look like it.  
It was just a sky.  
A seemingly endless sky, just like their own, but much different.  
Just where _were_ they?

A groan from beside him tore Zyro away from his thoughts, drawing his eyes immediately over in the direction that the sound had come from - Shinobu!  
Limbs aching and screaming in protest, the raven quickly crawled over the few paces it took to reach his best friend, kneeling by his side and placing a gentle hand on the Salamander blader's shoulder.  
"Shinobu?" Zyro called out questionably, "Are you okay? Shinobu?"  
Another groan escape the Salamander blader, visibly squeezing his eyes together for a moment before slowly opening them, gaze unfocused for several moments before those green eyes finally became focus. "Mm... Zyro?.." Shinobu questioned softly, his voice a nothing but a small groan as he continued to lay there for a few seconds before deciding to try and lift himself up on his knees.  
Zyro breathed a sigh of relief at the knowledge that Shinobu was okay, and helped the other lift himself up off the ground because, clearly, Shinobu was just as sore as he himself had been.  
"Ow, my head..." The Salamander blader groaned softly, placing a hand just over his temple where a pounding headache had decided to make itself known.  
"Are you okay?" Zyro asked again, concern written all over his features. Shinobu simply gave him a reassuring smile through the aching in his head.  
"Yeah, I'm fine." The Salamander blader responded before turning his gaze to their surroundings, "But... Where the hell are we?"  
When he had first woken up, Zyro hadn't even thought about looking at what was around them, and took a few moments to as Shinobu did as well.

Wherever they were, it was unlike any place they had ever seen before - and he would be damned if this was actually any place on the face of the earth  
. Most of the ground was clearly made of the same azure blue sand they were sitting on as far as they were able to see, large and small crystals of purple, red and other shades of blue either jutting out from the ground with sharp yet beautiful edges, or simply rising out in small lumps of different colors here and there.  
Neither of them had ever seen anything like where they were now, and both of them almost felt like they insulting the terrifying beauty of his place as they were looking at it, as if they weren't worthy to look upon it as they were now - still, it couldn't be helped.  
If they were told that they had somehow stumbled into a different dimension or ended up in a different world, chances were that both of them would believe it.

The sounds of several more groans and the shuffling of clothed bodies were enough to break them out of their enchanted trances, and reminding the two immediately of the others. Zyro immediately looked around them and everyone else laying on the sand, pretty well all of them starting to stir.

How could he have forgotten about them?

Had he even known that they had followed him and Shinobu in here?

The memory of jumping, of falling, of seeing nothing but endless lights before them was hazy, but he remembered clearly enough that there were shouts, that he was able to see Shinobu, that there was the slightest catch of blonde hair, and everything had gone from there.  
That's when everything had gone black, and then he had woken up here with the rest of them.  
If they were all managing to stir, than surely they were okay, right?  
But... Wait... Where was Ren?

"Ow..." Madoka moaned softly as she slowly brought herself up into a sitting position, every part of her body aching in protest at the movement and making her wonder _why_ she was so sore in the first place.  
Maru managed to sit up as well, rubbing her eyes free of the sleep that stuck them together, her small body aching well.  
Kira managed to get up too, as did Kite and the Eight, who had gone from holding onto to each other when they had jumped in to being several feet away from each other now. However, both of them were okay, as were Kira, Madoka, and Maru, and so was Benkei, when he finally heaved himself up and got the sand out of his collar.  
They were, however, all incredibly sore, and none of them were entirely sure why. As Zyro had expected, it was probably just from the fall, if there had indeed _been_ a fall - all of them remembered jumping, falling, but none of them could really remember the 'fall' all to well.

"..Is everyone okay?" Madoka asked once she was finally able to stand up, her posture slightly stiff as she tried to get proper motion back into her legs.  
"We're breathing..." Kira stated as an answer, rolling one of his shoulders as he too made it to his feet.  
"So, yes, otherwise..." Kite said with a sigh, straightening out his glasses on his nose.  
"Why are we on sand now?" Eight asked, pointing out one of the major elephants in the room, looking down at the azure blue grains beneath all of them.  
"Better question: where _are_ we?" Benkei asked, looking around at their surroundings with wide eyes. All other eyes turned to look around at what Benkei was talking about, and, clearly, none of them had noticed when they had first woken up.  
They probably noticed either the blue sand or the purple sky, since those were a given, but chances were that none of them had bothered to look around with how sore they had been.  
"Is this what we fell into?" Maru asked, looking around with curious eyes at the crystals that stood up from the sand and decorated it like a jewel.

"It doesn't seem like we _fell_ at all." Zyro stated, looking up towards the purple sky above them, wispy, light purple clouds decorating it delicately, "Because that looks a lot like a sky." Everyone else, at his words, looked up towards the purple sky above them, staring into an endlessness that they had most probably fallen out of.  
"Well, wherever we are, Ren probably is too." Madoka suggested, looking around at the ground that had been reduced down to 9 people, "Somewhere, at least..."

"Either she woke up earlier than the rest of us, or she landed somewhere else probably." Kite stated, "Whatever reason she probably fell down here for, it might not be anything good."

"Hey, look!" Eight exclaimed, pointing to the ground about a meter or so away from them, "Footprints." The sudden observation drew everyone's attention towards where the Orochi blader was pointing, and there were, indeed, footprints - fairly small ones, but not a child's, and though it was a little hard to tell, they could only guess that they were female.  
After all, who else could really be here that had walked away from their group and left booted footprints?  
As far as they were concerned, nobody.

"Those look like Ren's." Shinobu pointed out.  
"They might lead us straight to her!" Maru said, a somewhat hopeful tone in her small voice.  
"Let's follow them, then." Zyro said in a way that almost sounded like 'end of discussion', before starting off with aching limbs and a firm resolve.  
Shinobu followed closely behind him, and so did the others in the hopes that they would find the girl who had managed to drag them in here. Considering that this certainly wasn't any place to just be exploring randomly, since they knew absolutely nothing about it, they probably would have thought twice about just taking off straight away, following footprints that only _supposedly_ belonged to Ren.  
However, from the way things looked, there wasn't much else to do except follow them, no where else to go. So with that in mind, they all just kept walking, being sure to stay alert and wary of the things around them as they followed the footprints that seemed to almost go on forever.

They noticed that there really wasn't much to this place - just sand, crystals, and the few wispy clouds up in the purple sky that seemed to daunt them all the way.  
The landscape was entirely silent, seeming to be endless, and entirely devoid of any other life except for themselves.  
The silence was rather uncomfortable, the terrifying beauty that the place let off intimidating and daunting.  
However, they willed themselves to keep going, pushing forward and following the footprints that seemed to be perfectly embedded into the sand, like hand prints in concrete.

How far had Ren gone, exactly?

Surely she couldn't be too much farther ahead, right?

She had to have stopped at least, right?

Several of them thought these questions, but no one said them aloud. Complaining wouldn't do much at all in this situations - it hadn't really done well in _any_ of the situations they had been in, really.  
And this one was no different.  
So everyone continued on in near silence, walking for who knows how long because, as far as they knew, this place had no used for time-keeping, since Maru had checked her bracelet to see what time it was, but all the digital clock had said was 00:00 and had actually stayed like that.  
Maybe it was a broken, but even so, that probably wouldn't have affected the clock in such a way.

In wasn't long before they managed to come up over another hill, the footprints never fading, never ceasing, and as they come up over the top, there, only a few dozen meters away, was Ren. She just stood there, her back to them, unmoving, seemingly staring at the practical wall of multi-colored crystals in front of her, as though their beauty had warped her into a trance.  
But, certainly, that couldn't have been what dragged her down here, right?

"Ren!" Zyro called out to her, but the blonde made no reaction.

"Ren!"

"Ren!" The younger bladers all called out, relieved at having finally found the girl that had decided to dive into this place for whatever reason.

But really, whatever reason that was didn't bother them at the moment - all that mattered was if Ren was okay, if she was hurt or not. Despite his aching from the walk, sore from traveling for so long ( _how long, exactly?..._ ), Zyro managed to muster the strength enough to run the rest of the way to his blonde friend, hearing the others following closely behind him, pants and small groans being elicited from some of them at the last stretch of the journey they had to make - however, they managed it.  
"Ren.." Zyro said again as he finally reached the Phoenix blader, doubled over slightly and panting from the over-exertion that he put his body through, "Thank god we found you..."  
Shinobu came up next the Ifraid Blader, and so did Kite and Eight, and within seconds everyone finally made it to standing at least where Zyro was, just feet away from the blonde that seemed to have no idea they were even there.  
However, that was the last thing on their minds as most of them started to bombard her with questions.

"Why did you just fall in here like that, Ren?" Madoka asked, "You had us worried."

"Why'd you just leave us back there?.." Shinobu asked gently, "You were obviously awake way before any of us."

"Are you hurt?" Zyro asked.

"I don't think she's listening." Kira pointed out loudly, both of his hands on his hips. Madoka glanced down at Kira for a moment, who exchanged her glance with his only other eye, before she looked back at the blonde with a concerned expression.  
Indeed, Ren hadn't answered them.  
She hadn't even moved at all, just standing there with her back to them and ignoring them entirely.

"Ren?..." Zyro questioned softly, "Are you okay?..."

Silence fell over them all, the younger bladers waiting, silently _begging_ their friend to turn around and answer them, to show them that she was _okay_.  
She had to be okay, right?  
Didn't she?... Someone, or at least a few people, were about to say something else to her, but they didn't get the chance to as she finally moved.  
Slowly, almost mechanically, Ren turned around, eyes closed and never moving from the spot where she stood, until she was finally facing them.  
For several moments, everything was silent.

A pin dropping could have disturbed it, but no one had a pin, and they were pretty sure that one wouldn't just drop for no reason.  
That was when Ren finally spoke, but in a voice that wasn't entirely hers, hollow and emotionless, which brought back memories that Zyro, Kite, and Eight would have much rather forgotten.

"I have been waiting to meet you for a very long time, Zyro Kurogane." Ren said in a stoic voice that seemed to span miles, before opening her eyes halfway and revealing brown eyes that were blank, hollow, lifeless, so much darker than Ren's really were, and that's when it clicked.  
Zyro backed up a stuck, eyebrows furrowing and looking ready at any moment to fight for... Whatever there was to fight for at the moment.  
Shinobu immediately took on a wary look, Kite gently pushing Eight behind him a little, clearly remembering the first time they had encountered Ren like this back when they had first being going to face off against Alcorin.  
It hadn't been _Ren's_ fault, really, but he wasn't about to take the chance again. Madoka's eyes widened, Maru's did too, and Kira's one eye narrowed as he slowly and subtly reached back for his launcher.

"You're not Ren." Zyro stated firmly, the look in his eyes showing every emotion that conflicted with each other, like an open book.  
Ren made no reaction, but spoke again. "No, _I'm_ not." She said hollowly, "This _is_ her, though. You needn't worry, I don't mean any harm to her. But I do need her in order to speak to you, Zyro."  
Zyro's eyes widened, narrowed, the widened again.

What was she - it, whatever... - talking about?

All of them were just as confused, staring at the supposedly controlled body of the blonde girl in front of them in suspicion.  
"Why would you need _her_ to talk to us?" Shinobu asked, body language showing that he wasn't yet willing to trust whatever this thing was. Ren's blank eyes looked over towards the light-haired blader, but she did not move her head.

"Because me and her share the same power." It said as though it were the simplest thing in the world, "Because of that, she was the only option I had."

"Okay, but who are you?" Madoka asked, " _What_ are you? And why do you need to talk to us?" The sound of a smile came through, though there was no such thing that appeared on Ren's face.

"I'm not too surprised you wouldn't recognize me." It spoke to Madoka in Ren's emotionless voice, "Probably more so because you're looking at Ren at the moment. Now that you're here, I suppose I can show you."

Madoka looked confused for a moment, shaking her head slightly before they all saw the bright orange glow of what they always knew as Ren's power surround the blonde in a thin layer of bright flame, before it expanded ever so slightly and illuminated her with their aura.  
However, the flames didn't stop there as they seemed to expand from behind her as well, though almost as an entirely separate entity that was made more of light than of the flame-like aura Ren had around her.  
It only took a few seconds for the bright light (some of them had to squint their eyes at the brightness) died down, revealing a transparent figure that stood tall behind Ren, and made both Madoka's and Benkei's eyes widen in shock at the face that they had never expected to see again after all those years.

"Ryo?..." The brunette managed to say, though it was more of a question as she took in the sight before her in disbelief. But the form of Ryo Hagane simply smiled in response, and spoke in a voice that was his, and had Ren speaking along with him.

"It's been a long time, Madoka." Ryo greeted in return, looking just as young as he had when they had last seen as he retired from the WBBA, supposedly heading back to his original home of Koma Village.  
Of course, Ryo had still been at least in his early 50's by then, but he still looked as young as ever.

"Ryo?" Shinobu questioned, looking back at the former Bey mechanic, "As in... Ryo Hagane?"

Benkei was the one who nodded in response. "Yeah." The Manager said, "Gingka's father."

Some of the younger bladers seemed genuinely surprised by this, and even Maru was, having only ever heard brief mentions of _the_ Ryo Hagane when she was at the WBBA. A lot of them had heard of Ryo Hagane, knowing that he was original Director before Tsubasa of the WBBA, and even remembering him very faintly from when they were small. However, that did make sense, considering the resemblance that both Ryo and Gingka looked to have.

"Sorry for taking Ren, by the way." Ryo apologized with a smile, "But she was the only outlet I had access to who I would be able to talk to you through."

"Why?" Madoka asked, "Couldn't you have just come to Metal Bey City to talk to us?..." Madoka knew that, considering this situation, it was probably a pretty stupid question. However, it was probably better to be asked than to simply keep wondering.  
"No." Ryo answered simply, raised an eyebrow slightly, "I'm guessing Gingka never told you about my death 2 years ago, did he?"  
A short gasp escaped Madoka's lips at this news, and Benkei was left speechless as well. Everyone else, except for Zyro, was also taken aback (though it was harder to really tell with Kira) at the news, even though they had never really given any thought to the whereabouts or well-being of Ryo Hagane.  
"I figured..." Ryo said before any of them could say anything, looking down a bit with a small sigh and a forlorn look in his golden-brown eyes, "I know he wouldn't like talking about it..." A forlorn air passed over all of them (although whether it did for Kira was unknown) at the reminded of the redhead, the one that they had failed to save all that time ago, and a few of them wondered if Ryo knew at all.  
Apparently being dead and such, he probably should, but... How could anybody be sure what really went on with spirits?

"So..." Madoka started, licking her lips and swallowing, trying to work out how to put what she wanted to ask, "... If you're.. dead.. then, I guess you know what happened to him? Or do you?"  
Ryo shook his head softly, looking up once more at the group of adults, teenagers, and children that stood before him and the girl he currently had in his possession.  
"No, I know what happened to him..." The former Director said with a sad smile, before that smile faded and turned into something far more serious, "I also know about the whole situation with 'Alcorin' as well."

"You do?" Kite asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Ryo responded, "You could sort of say I've been watching for quite some time now... And that's really the reason why I need to speak with all of you. You, Zyro, especially."  
Zyro stiffened slightly as Gingka's father looked towards him again, feeling a little intimidated but still curious all the same.  
Was it natural or something to feel intimidated by a Hagane? It must be...

Ryo took his gaze away from the Ifraid Blader and looked back to the rest of the group, but Zyro could still feel those eyes lingering - or maybe that was because Ren's eyes had followed his as well.  
"There's a lot more to this than all of you really think there is." Ryo stated, his face and voice as serious as ever, echoed by Ren's own emotionless one, "There's a lot to be said, but I do believe the time is long overdue for you to know what's _really_ going on." Ryo looked down for a moment again, seeming almost reluctant to keep speaking even though he _knew_ there was no going back, before looking back up, and gazing at confused faces that should have never had to deal with any of this.  
"... The time is also long overdue for me to tell the truth about my mistakes."


	29. Chapter 28 - My Twin Skeletons

Chapter 28 - My Twin Skeletons

* * *

 **One Week Ago**

* * *

When Hyoma had opened that letter that Ryo had left him, he honestly didn't know what it was that he had been expecting.  
He hadn't expected anything, really - he was just still surprised that Ryo had actually left him a letter at all, and one that he had written at least two years prior to now where he somehow _knew_ that he'd probably be dead.  
Perhaps he had written it when he first came down with the symptoms of the sickness, which, to be honest, definitely weren't that bad to start with. It started like the common cold would; coughing, blocked sinuses, fever, which was honestly the most terrifying thing about it. No one knew if they had the seasonal sickness or the disease that had taken so many lives unless it got worse... Ryo had known these signs, and he had even shown them a bit before anybody had really taken notice to how much worse he was getting, and before anyone really knew he had it is when he must have written the letter, and put it in the photo album.  
How the man had ever actually expected him to find it in that photo album, how he had known whether or not he would eventually look through it, he would never know.  
No one ever really knew what went on in Ryo's head, which was why the man always remained a mystery and especially interesting to most people.  
But now, at this moment, Hyoma could think of him as anything but as he stared at the unfolded piece of paper that he had clutched in his hands, the envelope which it had come in forgotten on the floor as he stared at the black ink words on top of a stark white sheet.

His hands quivered as he thought about them for a moment, but he didn't care, and read through the entire letter again just to make _sure_ that it said what he thought it said ( _and how he prayed it didn't..._ ) again, and then again, and then a fourth time, before he could no longer bring himself to deny the words that were written in ink, the confession that was a solid as concrete and was as shocking as it was suddenly crashing against it as well.

Ryo had trusted him with _this_...

But why _this_?...

Why couldn't he had just done as he had mentioned and let it die with him?

As morbib as that probably sounded, Hyoma would have much rather preferred never knowing what was written on that paper, wishing that he had never become nostalgic and had come to look at that photo album that contained the letter he held.  
But the thing that he just couldn't shake was... How could Ryo _do_ that?...

How could he have just hidden that from _everyone_ except for those who had been there at the time? How could he have hidden that from _him_?...

How could he... How could he...

"Hyoma?"  
The sound of his own name being called by the so familiar voice of his mother partially dragged the violent-haired man out of his thoughts, and brought him back into the reality that he had seen as beautifully cruel just a few minutes ago, but now was unable to focus on anything but the paper in his hand, and... His mother... She knew.  
"Hyoma~ Did you find what you were looking for, sweetie?" Isha called kindly as she didn't get a first response from him the first time, and came into view in the entrance of the hallway, pieces of her lavender hair brushed behind her ears as she gazed at her only son with a small smile and then a look of concern, and Hyoma realized what his expression must look like at the moment.  
"U-um, yeah.." The Aries Blader replied weakly, finding it hard at the moment to even look his mother in the eye at the moment, "I-I found it, it was in there."

"Oh, good." Isha replied with a small smile, but that expression of worry in her crystalline eyes did not fade, "Are you okay? You don't look like you're feeling well."  
Of course he wasn't feeling well, not after reading _that_..  
"Y-yeah, I'm okay." Hyoma said quickly, swallowing the lump in his throat as he glanced down at the paper in his hands once more, "I-I just found this.." He gestured to the letter that he still held in both of his quivering hands, "... It's, uh... From Ryo.. H-he wrote it before he died."  
A sad smile caressed the lavender haired woman's face, her eyes turning sad yet understanding. Of course, that must be why Hyoma didn't look too good at the moment - he had been affected by Ryo's death just as much as anyone, and there was no doubt that getting what looked to be a letter from him before his death might get him a little emotional.  
"Oh, well, that's nice." She responded, brushing some of her long hair behind her ears and crossing her arms, shifting her weight onto her left foot, "What does it say?"  
Hyoma was silent for a second before shaking his head with a small and nervous smile, trying not to keep as calm as he could because, oh, she didn't know what it said, but she knew _about_ what it said.  
"Uh, it's just, like, a more proper goodbye, kind of..." The Aries Blader said somewhat dismissively, his voice shaky.  
That wasn't exactly a lie... Technically, it _was_ Ryo's proper goodbye to him, but there was no way in _hell_ anyone would want a goodbye like _that_...

"Okay." Isha said with a small smile, understanding her son's behavior at the moment. None of them had really gotten a goodbye from Ryo except for Gingka - no one had really come to see him after Gingka had arrived back then, but they had still worried about him.  
Hyoma licked his lips lightly, his heart pounding in his ears, his fingers still gripping hard at the paper in his hands, feeling sick to his stomach to even touch it, and he felt even more sick that he was about to ask what he was.  
But he had to hear it.  
She knew, and, from what it had said, she had _always_ known, because, really, who else could have done the job properly?  
"Hey, mom, uh..." The violet man began somewhat awkwardly, his heart beating so fast it was hurting him, and he saw his mother look at him intently, "Can I... Can I ask you something?..."

Isha nodded her head gently, taking a few steps into the wide end of the hall where both of their bedrooms were with a warm look on her face that he had always known to be hers, and which secretly hid so much that he had never realized.  
"Yeah, of course." Isha said, "What is it?"  
There was a brief few moments where Hyoma didn't answer, didn't ask anything because how could he just _ask_ something like that when Ryo had made it very clear that she wanted to forget?  
He had told him that she knew, told him not to ask her from the apparent amount of emotional damage it had done on her, but... He needed to know the truth.  
Even if it was a truth that would at least 20 years worth of damage.  
"Mom, d-did..." Hyoma started, faltering for a moment and looking down at the paper in his hands before slowly looking up again into the eyes of the woman he might just about ruin, ".. Did Gingka have a twin?.."

The change in Isha's face was almost instantaneous.  
All the blood drained from her face and he eyes widened, all the air escaping her quickly in the form of a silent gasp as she was taken aback by the question that some part of her had prayed would never be asked.  
In that moment, as much as he would have loved to deny everything the letter told him, Hyoma knew that it was all true.  
Silence stood between them for a few moments, Isha staring at her son almost as if he had grown two heads, eyes filled with horror as everything came rushing back to her all in an instant.  
It seemed like a very long time before she was able to speak again, and her voice shook, betraying her as she asked, "W-wha... Wh-what m-makes you ask th-that?"  
Instead of answering with his words, Hyoma stepped forward and held out the letter to her, his heart aching with guilt and relief as he passed on the horrid thing to his mother, but was relieved of it all the same.  
Shakily, Isha reached out her slender hand and took the paper from him, licking her lips and trying to steady her breathing as she evidently tried so hard to keep calm, holding both sides of the letter in her hands and slowly reading over it, just as Hyoma had. As she descended further and further to the bottom, her eyes only grew wider, crystalline blue being tainted with horror and anguish that she had wished she could have just _left behind_... But no.. It was there.  
It was all there, even if it was just the shortened version.  
Even so, it was too much, and Isha, unable to control herself, let the tears fall, quiet sobs starting to escape her as she covered her mouth with her right hand, still holding the letter from Ryo in front of her as she scanned her eyes over it faster and faster. Slowly did she back up against the beige-colored wall, and slid down the length of it until she was on the floor, the tears flowing freely and her sobs just barely muffled by her hand as she continued to hold the cursed thing.  
Hyoma had no idea what to do as he looked down at the woman who raised him, grief ever so present on his face as he witnessed her in a state that, as a child, he had never thought her capable of being in.  
But he supposed there really was something that broke everyone - and he had, regretfully, been the one to find what would do so to her...

* * *

It was at least an hour before Isha finally calmed down, was finally able to sit still in a chair without breaking down into the tears that she had probably held in for the better part of 20 years as all of those memories came back to her.  
Hyoma had done what he could to try and comfort her in that time, had her sit down in the living room, made her some tea and just sat across from her, the letter from Ryo sitting hauntingly on the side of the coffee table between them, reigning down it's accursed knowledge upon them and barely allowing any peace to be had in the comfortable setting of the room they sat in.  
When Isha finally did calm down, her face and eyes were red, her cheeks tear-stained, her hair slightly disorganized unlike it had been earlier, and, now, she just simply sat there. Her posture was ridged, her eyes filled with sorrow and regret at things that Hyoma had never known about before now, and probably still didn't _enough_ about, as she looked down at her quivering hands, clasped together in her lap and focusing intently on them, almost as if they were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. But she knew she couldn't do that forever, because Hyoma would want an explanation that would bring back even more memories, every detail of the blood, the screams...  
How it had managed to come to this, she wasn't sure, but it had everything to do with Ryo. He had promised he would never bring it up again, but... How many people could actually promises like that forever?  
Hyoma simply watched her, sitting in the chair across from his mother on the other side of the coffee table and gazing at her with his own light blue eyes, forlorn yet calm.  
He wanted to comfort her, tell her that it was alright, he _really_ did... But he couldn't. Not right now, not until he got the answers, not until he _knew_ all about what had happened all those years ago. He almost didn't even want to know more than he already did, but he _had_ to. The thought of _what_ could have happened at east 20 years ago scared him, and he was almost afraid of what he was going to hear once his mother started talking - if she did that was. At the moment, she just seemed lost, lost in her thoughts and her memory as she recalled everything.  
He waited a few more minutes, just looking at her intently and waiting for her to start talking, to start explaining.  
But she didn't.  
Finally, after several more minutes, Hyoma finally spoke.  
"Mom." He said simply, and that seemed to snap the lavender-haired woman out of her thoughts, her own blue eyes darting up to meet his as he looked at her intently. She stared at him for a moment before nodding slightly, brushing some of her hair out of her face and behind her right ear.  
"R-right..." She stuttered softly, struggling to pull herself together again but managing it anyway, "What do you... Want to know?"  
There was a silence that passed between the two of them once again, a thick tension hanging in the air that almost made her want to choke. Isha was about speak again after Hyoma didn't answer her, but as soon as she thought of it, her son broke the tension-filled silence that hung around them.  
"Start at the beginning." Hyoma said firmly, a tone that clearly stated to his mother that she would not be able to hide anything, not after his many years of deceiving unwanted visitors away from Koma Village.  
Isha licked her bottom lip, pursing them softly before she let out a soft breath and shakily nodded her head, all of the memories having flooded back to her far too fast, too suddenly. The air was heavy with all of her secrets and the tension that passed between a mother and her son that had never been distant, and Isha, as much as she hated it, knew that it was time to tell the truth.  
"Okay." She agreed, and began from the very start.

"You remember.. All the things I've told you about Asuna, right?" The lavender-haired woman asked her son, heart pounding against her rib cage painfully.  
Hyoma, hearing the name and recalling everything he had ever heard about Gingka's mother, nodded, saying, "Yeah, I remember."  
Isha nodded, and continued speaking. "Well, then, you must remember how I always told you how sickly she was.. She was almost always sick, and there were quite a few surgeries that I had to perform on her to help her get better... It got to the point where I had to take one of her Fallopian tubes, and tie the other one, which meant that she would never be able to bear her own children, as she always wanted... She was a good friend of mine, and I hated seeing her so devastated over it, but... There was nothing I could do. But then, of course, after marrying Ryo, she somehow did get pregnant, and... Well, she was overjoyed." A small smile crossed the lavender-haired woman's face at the memory, remembering her dear friend's excitement, the tears that she had shed. "Of course, I always believed that one of her eggs had managed to get past the blockage in her tube, and, so, I just left it at that. She was _so_ happy about it, and... Everyone was happy for her." Isha paused for a moment before her smile faded, her expression forlorn and filled with grief, "But, of course, she got sick again, as she often did... It didn't seem like much at first, but... Within a week, we diagnosed her with Termina."  
Hyoma fought the urge to cringe at the name.  
Termina was the name that they had given the disease that had taken so many people in their village through the years, breaking it off of 'terminal' because, well, that was just what it was. It was incurable, slow, and, above all, it would always result in death.  
His mother, and the many people that had learned from her over the years, had tried practically method there was in the book, tried everything they could think of to try and find a cure for it, but, as it was, there was no such thing.  
The word was almost like poison when spoken at all, and very few people used the proper name, for others would most often flinch at the mere sound of it. Everyone who got it would always wind up dead in the end, no matter how long it took. Some people, Gingka's mother included, could survive months with it.  
"Nobody wanted to believe it... Ryo least of all." Isha went on, "But, sadly, it was the truth. We feared, from how sickly she had always been, that she would never make it to be able to see her first ultra sound let alone be able to deliver. That, or it would kill her child before it killed her... But, through some miracle or another, she survived the whole 9 months of it, and I, Ryo, and, most of them, the priests of our village, helped her through it. She was bedridden... She displayed the worst of symptoms that we always feared would bring harm to her child, but, somehow, it never did. I always performed numerous ultra sounds for her, just to make sure that everything was alright, but..." Isha's expression turned troubled, regarding the things that she had always seen on that screen, what she had never been able to make sense of for the longest time, "They were always... Strange. I could out _some_ features of the child, or, at least I thought I could, but.. There always seemed to be something in the way, and it was impossible to tell if it was male or female. But, I knew that some ultra sounds did always look very strange at times, and, considering Asuna's situation at the time, I just assumed that it might be reasonable, so I always left it. And then... 9 months past, and Asuna eventually went into labor. There was only me, Ryo, a few of my assistants, and the priests in the house at the time, it was just... Too brutal for anything else... And, well... Needless to say, things only got more complicated from there..."

"Complicated, like how?" Hyoma asked, listening intently to his mother's story. Isha's hands fidgeted slightly in her lap, and she shifted uncomfortably as all the memories came to mind.  
"To answer your question earlier..." She started, her voice shaking slightly and her eyes darting over to the paper on the table for a moment before looking away, "Yes... Gingka did have a twin. But I suppose that was somewhat obvious already..."  
Hyoma nodded slightly, but didn't say anything, letting his mother continue.  
"We managed to Gingka mostly out, and... and..." No, she shouldn't say that, not just yet.. "T-there were complications with getting him out at all, and I ended up having to do another ultra-sound mid-delivery, which was how I figured out that there ws two of them, and I knew I'd have to preform a C-Section if we couldn't get both of them out properly."

"Why couldn't you get both of them out if you already had Gingka?" Hyoma asked, and he knew that the answer was probably pretty obvious at this point, but... Still. He had to ask.  
"They were conjoined..." Isha answered, her voice starting to shake with the distant effects of tears. "But not like anything I'd ever seen with conjoined twins, and... I told Asuna that as soon as we figured that out, but..." Isha shook her head softly, tears starting to brim at the corners of her eyelashes, "She couldn't do it... There was already enough strain on her body as it was, and from the amount of blood she had already lost, her... Her heart gave out..." The lavender-haired woman wiped away a tear that managed to make its way down her cheek' "So I had no choice but to open up stomach and push the twin the rest of the way out, since there was no other way to do it unless we cut her open from her stomach to the vaginal opening, which... We really couldn't do, all things considered... We took both of them immediately into the next room, and cleaned them up, but... They weren't even _crying_.." Isha let out a shaky breath at the memory, taking a moment to wipe at her eyes as the pain, the guilt, gnawed away at her.  
"T-they weren't..." Hyoma started, hesitating for a moment before speaking, "...They weren't stillborn, were they?" Of course, they couldn't have been, right?  
At least, he knew Gingka definitely hadn't been, but the other one...  
Isha shook her head in response, brushing her hair away from her eyes and behind her ear again. "N-no, they weren't..." She said, a slightly troubled look on her face, remembering those small faces, entirely devoid of color, the bit of blood that still covered them, and... "They were just... _Looking_ at each other. There was no crying, they just looked at each other, and... They were not like any other infants I'd ever seen, let alone _twins_.."

"How so?" Hyoma asked, his eyebrows knit together lightly at the expression on his mother's face.  
"They..." Isha started to say, trailing off for a moment, hesitating, before speaking again with a look that seemed as though she was trying to get the memory right, "...They had no pigment..." The words were almost whispered, but Hyoma heard them anyway, and he almost didn't think he had heard right before Isha kept talking. "They were just white.. All white, their skin, nails, everything... Their hair, it... It was longer than they even were big, and, of course, that wasn't very big but it was longer than anything had ever seen on newborns. Their bodies were _covered_ in marks - black ones, but nothing like birthmarks.. They weren't even anatomically correct, so there was no way for me to determine whether they were male or female... The only color they had was their eyes... They were red. I tried to get the light to hit them, but they didn't reflect any, they just... They didn't look _human_ , at all.."  
Hyoma furrowed his eyebrows at this explanation, almost unable to believe it. He honestly thought she was lying, but he could see it in her face, hear it in the way she spoke, that she wasn't. But even so, all of that... That was _impossible_ , right?  
He knew Gingka, had been his first friend, and he had never looked as she had described as far as he could remember.  
Yes, he had had very long hair at one point, and even as an infant, but...  
"Mom, are you sure?" The Aries Blader asked, a sense of disbelief and doubt in his voice, but he did what he could to try and keep most of that hidden, "I... I've known Gingka for years, he's not albino.. And he's definitely not sexless, I know that..."  
Isha licked her bottom lip again, and shook her head quietly before looking her boy in the eyes, a solid resolve set in them through the distinct anguish. "No, but he was." She said firmly, her voice shaking with tears, "He was for at least a week after-" Isha's voice faltered again, almost seeming to choke on her own words as all the blood, the screaming, the spiteful words spoken came flooding back again, crashing over her mercilessly like a wave that she had seen coming and had disregarded at the time.  
Hyoma, of course, saw this. "After what?" He pressured lightly yet firmly, willing his mother to go on and feeling some other part of him fear the words that she would soon say.  
Isha seemed hesitant, glancing down at her lap again before braving herself to look up into her son's eyes. "After we separated them.." She finished, seeming to bite the inside of her lip for a moment.  
Hyoma just nodded. Of course, he had been expecting that, because that was what Ryo had said as well - obviously the twins had been separated, but...  
If they had been conjoined in some way, than what kind of damage had it done? Gingka seemed perfectly normal, with practically no scars to speak of on his body that Hyoma had ever seen besides those that he had received while they were playing.  
"It sickened me to have to do that to them, but..." Isha said, trailing off slightly and wiping away more of her tears, trying to stay as calm as she could with the memories of that day, ".. I said earlier, that they were conjoined, right?" Hyoma nodded his head, and she nodded hers in response, brushing her hair behind her ear again, "They were conjoined, but not like anything I had ever seen... Their skin wasn't even really connected, it was just.. Their hands..."

"What do you mean?" Hyoma asked.  
"They were connected through a... Vein or an artery that ran through the palms of their hands. It was almost sort of cute, at the time..." A small, quivering smile appeared on the woman's lips for a split moment before it faded again. "Ryo saw them, and... Well, he had just about the same reaction as anyone else would have. The priests did as well, and... It didn't go over well. They sent me into the other room to clean up Asuna, and... I had no idea what they were talking about, but.. Ryo came in, and told me that we had to separate them, because they were... Dangerous."

"Wait, what?" Hyoma asked, disbelief crossing his features, "Dangerous? They were babies, how could they be dangerous?"  
Isha shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes again as she spoke. "I tried to ask him _why_ but he just said that it was for the best. I heard the priests talking to each other, and I... I didn't know what they were really saying, but.. There was just something about needing to protect everyone, and they... They said that they couldn't be together, so..."

"So you did what he said?..." Hyoma questioned, even though he already knew that it was true.  
Of course they had been separated, but... Why? Because they were _dangerous_?  
Because they would hurt people?  
How could newborns do anything that bad?  
Sure, the way she described them, they were anything but normal, but...

Isha just nodded her head, tears once more starting to spill down her cheeks. She covered her mouth for a moment, to stop herself from sobbing again, from breaking down, before she resumed talking.  
"I did.." She said quietly, her voice almost a whisper, "I brought them into surgery within a few hours and we severed the vein that kept the artery that kept them together, and there was so much blood, but... They were both okay, as far as I knew.. And, after the surgery, when they were both in recovery, the priests and Ryo decided to keep Gingka, and get rid of the other twin..."

"Get _rid_ of?" Hyoma asked, disbelief and disgust in his voice, "What does that mean? They didn't mean kill it, did they?"

"No!" ISha said hurriedly, shaking her head furiously and caused the tears to run down her already stained cheeks without her control, "Ryo said that one of them would take it away... Far away from here, and as soon as the wounds healed, that's what they did... One of them took that dear boy away, and I never had any idea where too, he just _left_.."  
Hyoma, despite his revulsion, furrowed his eyebrow together at the used pronoun. "'Boy'?" He questioned, "How do you know that it was a boy if they only became anatomically correct awhile after you separated them like that?..."  
Isha bit her bottom lip, the skin reddening underneath the punishment as she willed herself to not cry, but knew that it was inevitable no matter what she did.

"B-because... Because... He came back here.." She explained, even her voice moist with tears.

"He- When?" Hyoma asked, almost unable to believe the words coming from his mother's mouth, even though he knew that it was true.  
"Years ago.." The lavender-haired woman replied brokenly, "The one priest that took him away brought him back at least once or twice, I can't remember..." A slender hand wiped harshly at tears that refused to stop falling, "I couldn't ever bring myself to look at him... I couldn't look at him after what I did!..."  
Hyoma shook his head, unsure of what he was feeling but for the distinct hints of confusion and disappointment. "What the hell?!" The Aries Blader almost shouted, and he saw his mother flinch under his tone of voice because she knew he was more than likely angry with her, "You separated the two of them, and then you couldn't even face what you did? Why would you even _agree_ to something like that when there was no actual good _reason_ for it?!"  
In his frustration, the lilac-haired man knew he wouldn't be able stand sitting down any longer and stood up from the chair, moving away from it and walking to one side of the room. "They were _babies_..." He continued, the mere thought bringing disgust into his voice, "What the hell could they do?! Yeah, maybe they weren't exactly _human_ , but that doesn't matter! You of all should've known that!"

"Hyoma, I'm sorry..."

"'Sorry' isn't going to fix anything, mom." Hyoma retorted as he turned back to look at the woman that sat on almost the other side of the room, trying but most likely failing not to sound as disappointed as he really was.  
"I know, but you have to understand.." Isha begged, standing up from her seat as she faced her son opposite her, "I didn't want that to happen! I-I barely knew what was happening myself-"

"Maybe, but you could've done something." Hyoma accused before she could even finish her sentence, looking at her and finding it internally painful to see the tears that rimmed her eyes and dulled their original luster, "You could have spoken up and said something instead of just letting it happen!"  
Isha breathed a light sob as she tried to speak without breaking down, but was almost unable to as she looked into her dear boy's eyes and saw the disappointment that was in there. "I know I could've, but..." She began, wiping at her eyes again as she tried to gather herself enough to actually be able to talk.  
Hyoma simply waited patiently - a patience that was slowly running out - as she did so, and watched as she brushed part of her hair out of her face, and finally brought herself to try and speak once more.  
"I could've said something," She said, "And I _would've_ , but... It was their word against mine, and I... I-I couldn't just go against them.." Hyoma sighed and sucked on his bottom lip as he put hand on the back of his head, trying to keep himself occupied as he willed away the feeling of tears that stirred deep within him - he knew well that it wasn't the time for that, or at least not for him.  
"I know..." He sighed irritably, his teeth grazing lightly over his bottom lip while another sigh escaped him, "None of us ever doubt the priests... Nobody ever really doubted Ryo, either..." The Aries Blader ran a black-gloved hand through his light violet hair, shaking his head with nothing to think and confused on what exactly he was _supposed_ to believe.  
After all, finding out something like that really did leave a dent in your conscious.  
"Hyoma, please..." Isha begged again, a choked sob that she had fought to keep in escaping her as the tears roll down her stained cheeks again, her eyes bloodshot with sniffles and sobs that followed, this time doing nothing to stop them, "I w-wanted to say something, I-I _did_ , and I would have, but... I regretted never s-saying anything, and I _know_ I should have, and I'm sorry..." The last words were nothing but a strangled whisper, swallowed by the anguish and regret that all came back to her after so many years, and this time with no mercy.  
Muffling her whimpers, Isha sat down on the couch and covered her eyes with one hand, breathing shakily while her other hand rested clenched in her lap, her nails digging deeply into her skin. It only took a few moments of Hyoma listening to his mother's heart breaking - perhaps all over again - to know that he as much as he was frustrated and disappointed, confused and upset, he couldn't stay angry at her.  
After all, they had only had each other all of these years.  
The violet-haired man looked over his shoulder and past his bangs, his light blue eyes landing on the sobbing woman sitting on the couch, her hair falling over her shoulders and her eyes helplessly, and he watched in mourning as she covered her eyes with one hand and bit her bottom lip to keep her sobs to herself, even though she probably knew it was futile.  
All it took was that sight to break Hyoma's resolve, and he hurried over to the woman who had raised him, sitting down beside her on the couch and gently pulling her into a hug, his arms wrapped around her waist as he let her head rest on his shoulder.

"It's alright, mom..." Hyoma said quietly, gently rubbing his mother's back as he let her cry against him, "I'm not mad at you.."  
Both of them didn't really know if it was a lie, but Isha, for one, couldn't bring herself to care anymore. She wrapped her arms around her son's shoulders, buried her face into his chest, and cried for the years that she had taken away from those sweet little boys, for how many years she had spent regretting ever agreeing to separate them in the first place, because she knew that there was nothing she could ever do to take it back and fix the two little skeletons in her closet.  
For several minutes, they simply just stayed like that, a tender moment between mother and son that no one would ever see beyond these walls, before Isha's sobs and cries finally died down enough for her to just be whimpering quietly every now and them, and she soon pulled herself away from the embrace of her violet-haired son, gingerly wiping at her eyes to wipe away any other stray tears that were left.  
Hyoma simply let her, and sat there with her, his light blue eyes glancing over her as she slowly but surely gathered herself together again with the broken pieces he himself had scattered on the floor.  
In any other circumstances, he would have never dreamed of hurting her as much as he did today, and he vowed to himself that, as long as he could help it, he would never do so again. Even as he made that resolve, he knew that he didn't have the full story - but he would not try and get anything else from his mother, because he knew that the other part he wanted didn't lie in her.  
"Hey mom?" Hyoma questioned gently, looking intently at the lavender-haired woman beside him.  
"Hm?" Isha asked wordlessly, not trusting herself to speak for fear or breaking down all over again.  
"You said that the priest's were the ones to take Gingka's twin away, right?" Hyoma asked, and Isha, snuffling softly, simply nodded her head, brushing her hair out of her face again.  
Hyoma nodded in response, but he stayed there for awhile, not willing to leave his mother alone so soon while she was in such a delicate state - after all, it wasn't like the priests were really going anywhere...

* * *

The sun was still fairly high in the sky by the time dinner-time was soon to arrive, which was exactly when Hyoma finally left the house after assuring that Isha would be able to handle things on her own for awhile.  
He set out with a mission, and he was well intent on seeking out the other side of answers that he wanted, because, back then, even though Ryo had given the orders, the priests had been the ones to advise it of him in the first place.  
He would hear from them whether they wished to speak of it or not - but, then again, Hyoma didn't see why they would have any reason to hide after it had been so many years and when nothing could be changed. But whether or not the Fathers of the village cared, Hyoma wanted answers from them, and so he walked briskly through the village, ignoring all greetings and polite hellos from the other villagers who could now clearly see that something was going on, towards the monastery at the edge of the forest.  
The Catholic priests had almost always been present in their village for as long as most people knew, and were constantly looked at for guidance in either dark times or when important decisions had to be made by the head of the village. While they were mostly caught up in their own religion, they did respect and even help nurture the spirit that the Bey Village was built upon, and, as it stood, they had never once been doubted in their wisdom.  
But, of course, wisdom did have a limit, didn't it?

Before he knew it, Hyoma found himself directly in front of the door of the Koma monastery, where he knew that the priests would always be more often than not, and he lifted his hand to knock politely on the oak wooden doors before making his way inside, the creaking door hinges making him cringe slightly.  
The front entrance to the monastery was about the same as any church, with the confession booths and altar at the back of the room and the pews lining the walls all the way up the wall and leaving a red-carpeted isle in the middle. The actual living quarters of the building were in the back, where usually only the priests were permitted to go, unless they actually invited someone into them.  
At the moment, only two of the priests, Father Fujita and Father Hashimoto, were in the main hall at the moment. Both of them, dressed in their usual dark grey robes, turned at the sound of the door opening to see what had pulled them away from what was most likely a quick session of prayer.  
"Hyoma." Father Hashimoto said in acknowledgement and greeting, standing from his seat on the right front pew, "We did not expect you here."

"I know." Hyoma said coldly, not up to putting too much respect into his tone from the knowledge of the dark secrets he knew the two men in front of him - as well as the three others who weren't in the room - had, and walking forward up the isle to meet both of them, "But I need to speak with all of you."

"Well, this is a little sudden, don't you think?" Father Fujita asked with a raised eyebrow after he stood up from his seat as well, "After all, it's almost time for dinner, and I'm sure you're mother would want you home in time to eat."  
Hyoma shook his head. "She can wait." He insisted, "I already discussed it with her, so it'll be fine."  
Father Fujita looked intently at the violet-haired man for several moments, eyeing the expression in his eyes that showed that he clearly wanted to speak with them about something important.  
"Well, then..." The dark-haired man began, "I suppose the two of us can do something for you; we have a few minutes before dinner, so now might be as good a time as any."

"I know that Gingka had a twin." Hyoma said abruptly, and, just like Isha, the effect was instantaneous. The eyes of both priests widened, color draining from Hashimoto's face while Fuhita simply looked shocked at the sudden statement.  
Unlike Isha, Hyoma really didn't feel any pity for them - she was his mother, but they, on the other hand, didn't truly mean anything to him unlike she did.  
For several moments there was nothing but silence, the walls of the monastery soundless except for faint and small clatters and inaudible chattering in the other room, until Father Fujita gave a slightly bitter smile.  
"I see..." He said with slight understanding in his voice, and looked over to Hashimoto, "Get the others... I suppose we do all need to be present for this."  
Father Hashimoto nodded, and hurried off into the other room to gather the three other priests that they lived with.  
In the meantime, Fujita looked back to Hyoma, a bitter than solemn expression on his face. "How did you come across this, Hyoma?" He asked, his voice grave.  
"Ryo told me, more or less..." The violet-haired man replied, "I got my mom to tell me her half of the story, and now I want yours."  
Father Fujita seemed to understand, but didn't at all looked to pleased or eager at the idea of explaining such a thing. Hyoma, however, wasn't going to give him, or any of them, an option as long as he could help it. "And what did Isha tell you?" The grey-clad priest asked calmly.  
"Enough to know that you separated them for no reason." Hyoma responded coldly.  
"I assure you, we had every reason to want to separate those two." Fujita said in response, a hard expression on his lightly wrinkled face, "We knew it practically the moment we saw them. They were-"

"What?" Hyoma interrupted, that familiar feeling of disgust and anger bubbling up inside," _Dangerous_? Is that it?"  
Father Fujita looked surprised at the outburst for a moment, before narrowing his eyes slightly. "To an extent, yes..."

"They were newborns!" Hyoma protested, his voice cold and harsh, "What they apparently looked like may have been strange, yeah, but what could they have _done_? Why would think that they could do any harm?"  
Before Fujita could speak, another voice broke into the conversation from on the side of the room. "Because we saw the darkness in them that they had inherited..." Said a voice that sounded very old, far older than Father Fujita was, and both he and Hyoma looked towards the back of the room, where Father Hashimoto came with the other 3 priests that inhabited the sanctuary and pushing the wheelchair that harbored the oldest of them all - Father Matsushita.  
Matsushita had been the one who had spoken, gazing at Hyoma with grey eyes that were filled with wisdom and forlorn calm.  
"What?" Hyoma questioned, a puzzled look on his face as all the priests came up and stood beside Father Fujita, though Father Matsushita now seemed to be the lead speaker.  
"When we first laid eyes on those twins, we felt something that we had not felt for the longest of times, and had hoped we never would again..." Matsushita explained in his deep voice, his wrinkled face calm and sad, "We looked at them, and from their mere appearances, we knew that they were not fully human. What we felt coming from them, however, only furthermore proved our suspicions correct."

"What does that mean?" Hyoma asked, eyebrows furrowed lightly, "What did you _feel_ from them?"

"We felt the same aura from them," Began Father Kita, "that had once emanated from the God Of Destruction, who of which was destroyed 7 years ago - by his own child." Hyoma's breath hitched in his throat, his heart seeming to come to a complete stop and, for a moment, he felt as though he had almost died on the spot.  
"W-what?..." He stuttered softly, taking a step back to steady himself and assure that he did not accidentally fall backwards.  
"Yes..." Father Matsushita continued from Kita, "We don't know how such a thing could have happened, considering he had been sealed away for centuries at the time, but Nemesis, God of Destruction, was the one who fathered those two boys - not Ryo Hagane, by any means."

"B-but..." Hyoma protested weakly, "Gingka looks almost _exactly_ like Ryo, h-how is that possible?"  
Father Hashimoto shook his head. "To this day, we have no idea.." He said, "For all we know, Nemesis crafted the way they looked entirely, but we have nothing to prove that... Despite that, we knew we had to separate the two of them. Keeping them together, with the power that we could feel, there was no telling what they could do."

"What _could_ they do?.." Hyoma asked, that feeling of disgust once more seeping away the shock. Shocking as it was that Gingka and his twin were apparently Nemesis's children (however that was supposed to work in the place), it still did nothing to get rid of the fact that they had been separated for some foolish reason driven by fear. "You, or Ryo, or... _someone_ could have taught them!" Hyoma continued, "I was with Gingka throughout our whole childhood, he never did anything to hurt anyone!"

"Yes, you're right..." Father Matsushita said wearily, "Gingka did grow up normal for the most part, and maybe he would have even been so if we _had_ kept him with his brother... But we don't know that for sure.. Even if we regret what we did all those years ago, it doesn't matter anymore. We can do nothing for the two of them..."  
Silence fell between all of them, settling the tension that still partially floated around in the stuffy air of the monastery, and Hyoma just continued to look at all of them, his expression showing he was less than pleased with any of those answers, but not saying anything further.  
Despite how angry, how frustrated, how _disgusted_ he was with the priests of Koma for separating Gingka and his brother, he knew that it would do no good to shout at them. Yes, they had separated his best friend, someone who was practically like a brother to him, from his own sibling because of something as irrational as believing they would bring harm to everyone at such a young age, but, when it came to it, that was a long time ago. There was nothing any of them could do to change it, and so, really, there wasn't any real purpose to yelling at them at all. But, even so...  
"My mom told me," Hyoma began, both his expression and face far more calm than it previously had been, "that after she separated them, one of you took Gingka's twin and left with him."  
Solemnly, the priests nodded their heads, and Father Kurosawa spoke up. "Yes, that was Father Hisakawa." He said, "He used to be the head preacher here, long before Gingka and his brother were born. Once they came around, Father Hisakawa was the one who offered to take the twin somewhere else to raise him, where he would not be a threat to people..."

"He came back here with him, didn't he?" Hyoma asked, his voice far more quiet and subdued.  
Father Matsoshita nodded. "Yes, quite a few times..." The old man answered, "Though, that had always been because the boy had been far too young to be on his own. We stayed in contact with Father Hisakawa as distantly as we could for many years, but he stopped responding to us some time ago... We haven't seen or heard tell of him for at least 7 years, so... We have no idea what could have become of the boy, either."

"I see..." Hyoma said softly, glancing down slightly towards the floor and feeling slightly intimidated by the eyes of the priests that remained on him.  
"O-one more thing.." Hyoma demanded in a soft tone, and, upon seeing Matsushita nod his head, went on, "If Gingka's brother came here a few times when he was far younger, and if you kept in contact with Father Hisakawa about him, then... Did you know his name?"  
The priests nodded, and they told him what it was. The Aries Blader almost laughed at the irony of the name, considering what it meant and all that had made up the lives of the two.  
He apologized to them for his earlier behavior, and, after receiving forgiveness from the priests with them saying that it was perfectly reasonable, thanked them for their help, before leaving the monastery.  
Hyoma did not, however, start to make his way home. Instead, he walked towards the fields just outside of the village boundaries, and gave himself time to think. The only problem was that he had no idea _what_ to think, after all that had happened today.  
Needless to say, he had never expected anything like this to happen, never expected anything like _this_ to come to light so suddenly. All he had wanted to do was look through that photo album, go through what seemed like age-old memories, and he had ended up with a heartbroken mother, more than human priests, and a secret that Ryo had kept for years from his own son.  
It really was strange, how things like that could happen... And, of course, they always would, whether for the best or the worst, just like this. Really, Hyoma had no idea how to categorize this whole thing in the list of good or bad, and, more importantly, he had no living idea how he would _ever_ tell Gingka.

 _Hyoma,_

 _Somehow I knew that you would be the one to find this, so I addressed it directly to you. Maybe it's not you who's reading this, but I'll assume that it is for now. Either way, if you're reading this I'm probably already dead._  
 _I assumed that I would be, so I knew there would be no other or better way to contact you at this point. Well, unless you use one of those Ouji boards, but I'm pretty sure we've all seen what those things can do at some point in their lives._  
 _But, since I'm gone, these are my final words to you, Hyoma. However, they're not exactly the heartwarming parting words that you would have expected I say to Gingka if he had been there in the time of my death._  
 _There's something that you need to know, something that the some of the more elder villagers know, like your mother, Isha._  
 _I wouldn't recommend asking her anything about this since she would rather forget about it, but the priests of our village know well about it. What you choose to do with this information inside the village is entirely up to you, but please make sure it doesn't reach outside of it, as my last wish to you._  
 _You're the only one I know I can truly trust with his knowledge, because I know that after I die, the truth will had died with me altogether, even if few of the other villagers know it._  
 _I've hidden the truth for long enough, and if this lie must live on with somebody else, than that is the risk I am willing to take..._  
 _You see, I've had a lot of secrets over the years, some that I would have never dreamed of ever speaking of to anyone._  
 _And this is one of those. I know you're good friends with Gingka, and that's why I'm sure that you'll be able to understand - and I'm sure you'll be able to make him understand as well. You know that my wife, Asuna, died during childbirth with Gingka, but that's not all that happened._  
 _We always knew that her pregnancy was never an easy one, considering that fact that she had contracted Termina during the early stages._  
 _But the delivery process was complicated and strange as well, and that was because she had twins. Your mother, who had delivered them, had discovered this mid-way through both of them being delivered. Both twins were alive and healthy, but despite that, there were other things about them that I don't even think I'm capable of writing down._  
 _As you can most probably guess, we separated them._  
 _I knew, and so did the priests of our village, that we couldn't keep them together, and I'm not going to try and make you understand why. I just knew that we couldn't keep them together. So I separated them both, and I never looked back on it._  
 _I always thought I did the right thing for Gingka at the time, but, after all these years, I'm not to sure anymore. Maybe I did do the right thing in sending the other one away, but maybe I didn't at the same time._  
 _Now that I've really taken the time to think about it, I don't feel like it was right at all, let alone humane. I took away a whole other life from Gingka, and, for that, I'm sorry to have done that too him._  
 _I'm not sure if you'll be able to understand either, but I do hope you'll be able to do your best in making right what I wronged, if that's even possible anymore._  
 _I've lied to Gingka for his whole life, and I don't expect him to forgive me for that, whether I'm dead or alive. I know there's nothing I can do to make up for what I've done._  
 _And hopefully, you'll be wiser than I was, Hyoma. - Ryo Hagane_


	30. Chapter 29 - (Un)Worthy

Chapter 29 - (Un)Worthy

* * *

All of them were confused at Ryo's statement of 'confessing for his mistakes', and almost none of them would doubt that they were slightly nervous as to what his 'mistakes' entailed. Even more so because of the more knowledge that he apparently had of the situation than they did, whatever that was really supposed to mean. But from the grave expression that had settled onto the man's face, they could only guess at what it was that Ryo had to talk to them about. Everything was still so surreal at the moment, what from traveling to what almost seemed like a different dimension entirely to Ryo using Ren to speak to them, that they knew they could expect just about anything at this point.  
"W-what do you mean, Ryo?" Madoka asked, her voice shaking lightly from nerves. Ryo's golden-brown eyes turned to her, a strange look in their depths that was hard to identify.  
"I mean that I've made some choices I'm not proud of." The man said solemnly, "And, chances are, I may have been the one to cause all of this in the first place, even if I didn't mean too... Which is why I have to explain everything."

"How could _you_ cause all of this?" Zyro asked, confused. Ryo smiled somewhat bitterly.  
"You'd be surprised..." He commented, "Frankly, you'll probably all be more than surprised, really... It won't be anything easy to take, but you all deserve to know despite that."  
Several glances were exchanged between the group. Although many of them didn't really know Ryo, they could tell that this kind of attitude from him probably wasn't usual, considering how Madoka and Benkei were reacting. Which was probably why so many of them were as nervous about it as they were, from the way Ryo had made it sound. But whatever he had to tell them, there really was nothing to do but listen. It wasn't like they could really go anywhere at the moment - at least not without Ren.  
"I've seen all of what Alcorin's been doing to all of you for the past month or so..." Ryo began, "And I'm able to understand you're sorrow over what you know he did to Gingka.."  
Several faces dropped slightly at this; Madoka looking down slightly towards her feet, Zyro's shoulders visibly tensing, Benkei's deepened frown, and Maru's small side-step behind her teacher were all evidence that they were most certainly not comfortable with that subject. Even Kira seemed to shift uncomfortably at the topic, though he evidently did his best not to show it. Ryo simply nodded before continuing.  
"But there is a lot of things you don't know about all of this. I was what was going on before I brought you here, and I'll admit that Alcorin - or some look-alike of him - was right about something. I've seen many destructive people on this earth, and I know for a fact that he especially probably would have destroyed everything by now..."

"Yeah, he _did_ say that..." Madoka said, knitting her eyebrows together slightly and looking up towards the redhead, "But what is that even supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, if he didn't want to do something like Nemesis did," Maru said, agreeing, "Then what did he want from us?..." Ryo's eyes narrowed a bit, though he didn't seem to do towards anything in particular.  
"Like I said before..." The former Director continued solemnly, "There's a lot more to this than you really think their is.. There's _a lot_ you don't know about Alcorin, and also a lot that you don't know about Gingka that started all of this.. And I will have you know that Alcorin did come to Metal Bey City because of Gingka, but for way different reason than you think."

"Could you _please_ stop being so cryptic and get to the point?" Kira asked, putting emphasis on the one word so as to not wholly disrespect the elder redhead - he was smart enough to know that the rest of them, Madoka and Benkei _especially_ , would scold him terribly if he ever did such a thing. No one said anything, however, except for a few glances that went his way, and Ryo just smiled a bit.  
"Yeah, of course, sorry.." The redheaded man said apologetically with a bit of a dorky look on his face, before going back to his previous somber self, "But, really, for any of you to understand _anything_ , I'm going to have to tell you what started this in the first place, which is something I've never spoken of to anyone - not even the other people who were involved. It was over 20 years ago, when my wife, Asuna, was still alive - this was also a long time before Gingka was born, but... Yeah. Asuna was always a sickly person, and she suffered from a lot of chronic illness, to the point where Isha, Hyoma's mother and the medic of our village, told her she would never be able to have her own children. But, as you can guess, she did eventually get pregnant, which Isha always saw as strange, all things considered with her surgeries."  
Half of the young bladers' faces either paled or flushed at the very vague indication of what the elder redhead was talking about, but nobody said anything.  
"But we all brushed it aside, since, really, it wasn't as uncommon as most would think." Ryo continued with a light shrug before a frown settled itself on his face, "We were all happy for her, but it didn't last very long. Shortly after, she came down with the incurable disease that's taken the lives of so many of the villagers, which we call Termina. All things considered, we didn't think she was going to live for very long, but she proved us wrong. She managed all through 9 months, even with the worst of the symptoms that she had. And, miraculously, she lived long enough to be able to deliver, but her heart gave out mid-way through..." Ryo halted for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed in subdued pain and grief - of which had no effect on Ren, who still continued to stand there motionlessly, a puppet that Ryo had reluctantly made -, before he went on, "However, there was something that happened during that process that none of us could have expected, and not even Isha had been able to known it before then since it had somehow eluded even her... Although we barely even knew it until halfway through, Asuna had been carrying twins."  
There was a stunned silence that passed between all of them, and nobody could really blame anything when they all found themselves nearly completely speechless.  
Of all things that they had expected Ryo to want to tell them, they most certainly hadn't expected it to be _anything_ like that. Well, maybe there had been the thought that he had somehow known Alcorin, or that he knew what he was all about, but... Not anything to do with _twins_. And if Gingka's mother had had twins, then... When nobody said anything, communication just being being withheld through several glances and silent words that seemed to go unnoticed, Ryo nodded in understanding.  
"Yeah, I know..." The redhead said with a small sigh and weary smile, "That's not what any of you were suspected, and I don't blame you. But there's more too it than just that..." The former Director could see the expressions in their eyes, but went on anyway, "When the two of them were born, there was nothing that showed any sign of what they look like now... They were born entirely without pigment, except for their eyes and the markings that covered their bodies... They weren't even anatomically correct at the time, and the only _real_ color they had at all were their eyes, but even those were unsettling. I and the priests of our village knew from the moment that we saw them that there was no way they could've been human, and we were proven right once they actually looked them over for long enough. I didn't believe it myself at first when they really told me about the power they felt from them.."

"What power?" Zyro questioned, even though he had a feeling they all already knew the answer.  
"The power of the God of Destruction, who Gingka destroyed 7 years ago..." Ryo answered, although his tone seemed just barely reluctant and his face held a hint of grief.  
"Nemesis..." Maru said in a subdued tone, looking down slightly towards the ground. From the moment Ryo had mentioned the twin thing, practically all of them had expected that to be the case. After all, Alcorin really couldn't have been lying about that, all things considered on his part. Ryo nodded.  
"Yeah." He said, "And it was because of that, and the power that they could feel from them, that we knew we couldn't keep them together. So we separated them, which was slightly more complicated than it should've been, considering they were conjoined, but Isha took care of that... After that, we decided that we would keep Gingka in the village, while the head preacher of the monastery at the time took the other one somewhere else."

"Took him where?" Shinobu asked. Ryo shook his head.  
"I was never sure, and, frankly, I never really cared, as long as I knew the two of them were far apart from each other... Thinking back on it, it was probably more childish than anything to believe that that was the best choice. But at the time, I really believed it was..."  
Another period of silence fell over all of them, and nobody could really think of anything to say. What was there _to_ say to that? They had known that it would probably be something that would change their views on at least a part of all of this, but they didn't expect that it would change those views _that_ much... There was only one other thought that lingered in the air, and it wasn't exactly something that any of them wanted to say, but everyone that stood present knew that, eventually, it would have to be spoken. Because even though Ryo had placed a name to that long lost sibling, it was very clear who he was talking about. Now it was just a matter of who would say the fact that they now all knew out loud. They were all thinking it, but no one said anything, not even Ryo, who looked somewhat absently towards the ground while Ren, of whom was still under his possession, never said anything of her own accord anyway.  
Only after what felt like an eternity of that silence, the quiet almost peaceful and yet daunting all the same, someone finally did speak - and that was Madoka.  
"Gingka and Alcorin are twins..." She said, her voice flat and her face just as solemn, though the confliction of emotions and thoughts were clear in her sad eyes. Slowly, Ryo looked over towards her with an expression just as forlorn, and nodded.  
"Yes." He said, confirming what they had all been thinking and what they had all known from the moment he had spoken of it, "Alcorin is his younger brother, who, somehow, managed to find him against all odds. The only reason I was really able to recognize that he was his brother was because I've... Seen him when he was far younger, for several different reasons... Of all the things that I expected to have happened with him, or either of them really, this definitely wasn't one of them." Ryo shook his head absently, eyes straying down to the blue sand beneath them again. "So, to answer you from earlier, Zyro," Golden brown eyes that were painfully similar to Gingka's own looked back up towards the Ifraid Blader, "I really am the cause of all of this, as much as it pains me to say it. I didn't mean for any of this, and I really am sorry for all of it."

"You shouldn't blame yourself." Benkei said, his voice somber and his face just as so, "You couldn't have known any of this would've happened."

"Maybe not..." Ryo said, only his eyes looking towards the Manager, "But I still caused it nonetheless, whether or not I knew it at the time.."

"Okay, but exactly how much does any of this matter?" Kite asked, one eyebrow quirked, "Just because they were brothers doesn't change what Alcorin did. He hated him for what he did to Nemesis anyway, so why does all of this matter?"  
Once again, glances were exchanged between the group, knowing that Kite did have a point. The fact that Gingka and Alcorin had been brothers, let alone even remotely _related_ , was definitely a shock that none of them had ever expected, but why Ryo had really told them at all in relation to the whole thing just... Wasn't all that clear. Of course, he was probably guilty after that - who wouldn't be? But even still... It changed nothing about all that Alcorin had done, and it certainly didn't change the fact that they were still determined to go after him, a relative of Gingka's or not. But their unspoken questions were soon answered once Ryo spoke again.  
"I've seen what Alcorin's like behind closed doors, trust me." The elder redhead said gravely, "And I can tell you that even though he didn't know him personally, Alcorin cared about Gingka... Even if it is in his own sick way. He loved him as much as anyone..."

"Then why would he kill someone he... 'Cares' about?" Madoka questioned, a slightly unsettled look on her face, "If he really did 'love' him or whatever, then why not just leave him alone? Why would he kill him for no reason?" Eyes knowing and face grave, Ryo looked over to the brunette.

"That's because he didn't." The former Director said, almost as if it were obvious, and all of them fell silent. It seemed to take a moment for all of them to actually comprehend what it was that Ryo had just said, or... whatever it was supposed to imply which, from what Madoka had been saying previously, was pretty easy for them to guess at.  
"Um... What?" Kira questioned bluntly, his only eyebrow slightly raised.  
"What do you mean he didn't?" Eight questioned, a concerned and confused expression on his young face.  
"Alcorin didn't kill Gingka." Ryo said bluntly to all of them in response, "He never did, as hard as that seems to believe."

"B-but we saw..." Zyro started, before the words got stuck in his throat with an expression that nobody was able to make out despite the pure _emotion_ on it, "W-we saw... Him.. He..."

"I know what it looked like..." Ryo said gently, his eyes sorrowful with a hint of pity towards them all - and Zyro especially, "And I have to admit that it was very convincing, but you should all know that Alcorin has a fairly diverse set of abilities... Considering his motives, it's only reasonable that he would go well out of his way to make it seem as convincing as possible."

"W-what does that..." Madoka started, the tears clearly starting to well in her eyes, "...Wh-what do y-you mean, that doesn't make sense." Maru placed a hand on her teacher's leg, gently grasping the seams of her jeans in her small fingers, her face filled with concern as she did her best to silently comfort the older woman. Ryo closed his eyes for a moment, pain and grief etched into his face before he spoke again.  
"You already know that Alcorin came to Metal Bey City because of Gingka." The elder redhead stated, "But it most certainly wasn't because he hated him for killing Nemesis... In fact, I doubt he even remotely cares about Nemesis ever wanted. He came because he wanted Gingka, and you know very well how far he would go to get what he wants."  
Shinobu glanced worriedly over to Zyro, his lush green eyes filled with concern for his friend as he saw the Ifraid blader look down slightly towards his feet. Although the other boy's expression was filled with all sorts of emotions, it was practically unreadable. There was no one emotion to identify, and, truly, Shinobu didn't blame him for feeling whatever which way. Oh, they knew how far Alcorin would go for the things he wanted. He had killed and deceived people they held dear to them just to obtain what he wanted, even if that was something far different than what they had originally thought.  
"O-okay, but if he's not dead, then where is he?" Benkei asked, a slightly fearful look in his eyes as though he was afraid of the answer. However, from the way it sounded, they more than likely knew exactly where he was.  
"Alcorin's had him in his possession for the better part of 2 weeks." Ryo explained, "He's still comatose, of course, but... Alcorin doesn't care about that, as you can probably guess."  
That piece of information didn't do any of them any better - least of all Zyro and Madoka. Nobody looked like they really knew what to say at the moment - which they definitely didn't - and even Kira looked slightly comfortable with the whole explanation they were having handed to them.  
Gingka was alive, apparently... He must be, if Ryo - or at least his spirit or _whatever_ was going on - was saying so after watching everything that had been going on for so long, and... Alcorin had him.  
Alcorin _had him_ for _two weeks_ and they had never expected a thing. It was probably reasonable, since _who_ expected something like that in the first place, but... It was also more clear to them right now than anything had really been since Alcorin had first made himself known to them. Alcorin had tormented them, and 'killed' Gingka after cleverly deceiving them in more ways than one, before he simply left Metal Bey City with one last blow to them and then not doing anything else. He had wanted Gingka, and he had gotten him... And maybe that was because they were too stupid to think anything else.  
"I'm sorry about all of this..." Ryo said sorrowful, "But I assumed that it would be better to hear from myself than in any other way... And, maybe, now you can at least partially understand why you felt so compelled to come after Alcorin in the first place, Zyro."  
Slowly, Zyro looked up towards the redheaded man that resembled Gingka so much, despite the fact that they _somehow_ weren't even related, with a confused expression, his face far paler than it originally had been when they had first arrived in this place and tears trying to will themselves to be fully present in his eyes.  
"What?..." He questioned, his eyebrows knit together in confusion. Everyone else was slightly confused at that statement from Ryo as well - though it wasn't really all _too_ surprising that they would be. Everything Ryo had said so far had been far too surprising for their tastes at the moment. Ryo's eyes simply softened slightly, and his eyes glanced over to the side for a brief moment as though he spotted something, before looking back to Zyro with a solemn expression graced with kindness.  
"That's fine." He said, "Neither of us really expected you to realize it right away."

"'Neither of'... What?" Madoka questioned, her mind befuddled with all of this stuff that Ryo kept spewing and she actually very much agreed with what Kira had said earlier; she wished Ryo could stop being so cryptic at the moment and just get on with what he had to say! But she - nor anyone else - was given the chance to voice their confused or frustrated or concerned thought before-

"When you know your friends well enough, you're able to feel them... Know where they are... Even feel their emotions... That's what he told you. Right?... Zyro?.." From their right came a voice that none of them had expected to hear, expecting only to be alone in this world of mystery and beauty with no one else but each other and Ryo, and also of whom some of them realized - Zyro especially - that they recognized.  
Almost as soon as the voice came to them, everyone turned in the direction from where they had heard it, all eyes (except for Ren's and Ryo's) widening in shock as they were met face to face with someone that they had would have otherwise never expected to see. And after the few brief seconds of shocked and tense silence that took over, Zyro was the first to speak.

"You?..."

A small and sad smile etched itself across their face, something that was genuinely sweet and forlorn, and which looked more human now than it could have _ever_ been.

"Me." He said simply, and the silence took over once again.

It wasn't certain how old he was, but he was small; just a boy, maybe around the age of 12. He was short, too. Shorter than Zyro by at least a few or so inches (not counting the hair) but definitely much taller than the other two children of the group. He stood there calmly albeit timidly, his expression clearly showing uncertainty, touched lightly by a bit of fear, as though he were intimidated by them. Which was rather ironic in all senses, since, naturally, they should probably be the ones to be afraid of him. Considering who he was, if the shoulder-length, indigo hair, golden-brown eyes, and face that they had come to loathe ( _but it was so much softer..._ ) were anything to go by, it would practically be only natural by this point.  
But even though he looked every bit the part, this wasn't Alcorin.  
Or at least maybe not _exactly_. After several more brief moments of silence, Madoka brought herself to speak in her shaking voice.  
"W-who..." She began, "W-who are you?.. Exactly?" The boy that looked like Alcorin, albeit younger, looked down slightly, an ashamed and disappoint look on his face that they could only guess was directed towards himself. He shook his head.  
"I'm sorry..." He said in a voice that was as soft as many of them remembered from hearing it so many times before, small, delicate, just like he appeared to be, "If I could actually remember.. I'd tell you..." His shoulders slumped softly, "But... I guess most of you would know me as Alcorin now, right?" A few glances were exchanged within the group, even more conflicted emotions and views swimming around in the air as they gazed at what appeared to be a version of Alcorin before he was, well, _Alcorin_.  
Whoever he was, he seemed rather pitiful. When the boy looked up, his eyes went to Zyro, and the Ifraid blader felt something in his memory click, but he wasn't sure what.  
"He's been waiting for you..." The blue-haired boy stated, looking straight at the seemingly older boy. Zyro's eyes widened slightly, though he was still confused.  
"What?" The raven questioned.  
"Gingka..." The boy said simply, his voice subduing itself as he said the name, "..You can feel him, can't you?... That's why you're here... Why you haven't given up yet."  
Zyro's eyes widened slightly, because he knew he had heard those words elsewhere, and knew exactly why he was hearing them from this boy now. Several eyes glanced over at the raven-haired boy, but he did nothing to respond to them as the other kept talking. "You can feel it, too... He's fading."

"W-wait, what are you talking about?" Madoka asked, confused at all the things that this boy was saying.  
Who even _was_ he, exactly?  
"...My brother.." The younger version of Alcorin muttered softly, his voice so small that they practically had to strain their ears to hear him, "..Alcorin knows that Gingka, the way he is now, will never return the love he has for him... He's waiting for 'him', and I'm afraid that Gingka might not last too much longer at this rate..."

"Who's 'him'?" Shinobu asked. The boy was silent for a moment, his eyes very interested in the blue sand beneath him for a moment before looking up again.  
"I can't really say myself... But he's not someone you want walking this earth.."  
Kira rolled his eye slightly. "Great, now we have another one who's into talking in crypts." The multicolor-haired teen mumbled irritably, and Shinobu jabbed him in the arm slightly. Kira sent him a brief glare of a single golden eye, but otherwise did not respond.  
"I'm sorry." The boy said sincerely, his hair falling in his face slightly as he looked down, shameful, "But there's only so much I can really say for sure. Even as much as saying now, Alcorin will have my head for it either way..." The boy rubbed his right arm uncomfortably, and the aforementioned arm seemed to be jerked back slightly when he did so - perhaps that was because of the thin braces on his upper arms, which appeared to have a cord coming out from the back of either and connecting them.  
"You talk about Alcorin as if he's a separate person.." Benkei observed, "What's that about? You're technically the same aren't you?"  
The boy looked up again.  
"In a way, yes..." He said softly, "All I really am is just the shadow of who he used to be... Or what _I_ used to be. I can barely even properly exist in the physical world anymore, after how long he's been around..."

Once more, nobody was really able to get what he was talking about, except apparently for Ryo, who had an understanding look in his eyes though said nothing towards the situation.  
Whoever this boy was, he wasn't Alcorin - even if not entirely, they could say that for sure. And Zyro, although not fully, knew exactly who he was.  
It was fairly hard not too after staring in a face that you had seen so many times, even though it was shadowed over by the hood of a black raincoat.

"That doesn't matter, though..." The boy continued, looking up to the group again, "You can still save Gingka... As little time as he has, he's still here.. We both are..."

( _"He's still here..."_ )

Maru's eyes widened slightly as a short gasp escaped her lips, and she could swear once more that she felt the soft brush of an ethereal hand against her cheek, with a voice so captivating ringing in her ears.  
"So you've been watching us too, huh?..." Kite questioned, the lenses of his glasses reflecting off a non-existing light.  
"In a way, he never really had the choice not too." Ryo answered for the small boy, drawing the group's attention, "But, all this time, we've both been doing everything we possibly could to help you with this at any point that we could. I tried doing so at Ren's last battle as well in that tournament of yours... Me and her share the same power of the Phoenix, so she was the only one _I_ could really get to, as much as it made her frightened of me for awhile."

( _".. The voices won't stop!..."_ )

Zyro remembered Ren's words from back then, after she had been defeated in her battle with Genjuro because she had heard 'voices'.  
He had somewhat thought of her as just delusional at the time, but now... It sort of made sense. It also made sense to quite a few of them with how this boy had supposedly been helping them, because they knew that they recognized that voice, however delicate and small, from somewhere. So, clearly, none of them were delusional. That was a pretty good insight.  
"What do we have to do?" Madoka asked the smaller version of Alcorin, a more determined look on her face that had replaced the paleness and the tears.  
The boy looked over at her, his sad eyes seeming to have at least the smallest glimmer of hope in them.  
"You just have to find him... I can send you to where they are, but Alcorin won't be happy about it."

"We kind of figured that already." Shinobu said with a slightly reassuring smile, "We've dealt with him once before, I'm sure we can do it again." The boy didn't look so convinced of that, practically just as he had looked the entire time they had been speaking with him.  
"Not yet you haven't..." He said simply, looking down towards the ground again for a moment before looking over towards Ren - or at least the body of her.  
Ryo seemed to catch on to the message, and nodded with a smile. The redhead looked towards Madoka and the others.  
"I think is my call to go now." He announced to the group, drawing their attention once again, "I can't keep Ren forever, after all."

"But, what will happen to you?" Eight asked, concerned about the former Director of the WBBA. Ryo just grinned with a reassuring look on his eye.  
"Don't worry. I'm just a spirit, remember?" He said, "I'll be fine... And just one last thing." Ryo's eyes went straight to Madoka, who stood there with an expression that held more life than it had in weeks - and Ryo was glad to see that. "When you get Gingka out of there... Just tell him I'm sorry for everything I've done... And also that I'm not angry at him, either."

They never got to the chance to respond to Ryo before his translucent form disappeared, along with the fiery aura that surrounded Ren, before the blonde he had used as a host fell forward as though in dead faint.  
Shinobu, who was nearest to the Phoenix blader, quickly stepped forward and caught her in his arms before slowly lowering her to the ground. The rest of the group somewhat crowded around, all of them looking towards the blonde to see if she was alright.  
All of them (though Kira would probably deny it altogether) were immediately revealed when a groan escaped the female teen, who gently squeezed her eyes for a moment before the brown orbs fluttered open. She looked slightly dazed, her eyes glassy with apparent fatigue and confusion before she finally became aware of his surroundings.  
Looking up, she saw both Shinobu and Zyro with Kite peering over both of them, and groggily raised an eyebrow.  
"It's not nice to stare..." She croaked softly. Most of them smiled - she was okay. With that comment, she had to be.  
"Are you okay?" Zyro asked, watching as Ren slowly brought herself to her feet with a few grunts and groans along the way, her joints obviously just as stiff as there's had previously been when they had first arrived.  
"Yeah." She said with a brief stretch of her legs, "Kind of feels like I got hit by a truck, though..."

"Well, that's what we all felt like when we first got here.." Benkei said with a dorky grin.  
"Yeah, I guess." The blonde said in agreement.  
"How much to do remember, exactly?" Madoka asked. Ren just shrugged her shoulders a bit.  
"Well, I remember that whole conversation, so... I think we're good on explanations." The Phoenix blader explained, and all of them were glad to hear it. Considering who Ryo was, even though some of them really didn't know too much about it, it would've been highly doubtful anyway that he would allow any harm to come to Ren.  
Considering how much Ren seemed to be getting possessed in someway during the last few weeks, they were most certainly grateful.

"Zyro..." The sound of his name in that voice he knew so well brought the raven's attention back to the boy that stood off to the side, and caught the others' attention as well.  
Zyro turned back towards his old friend who simply stood there, his expression as calm and sad as it always had been. The small chatter in the group quickly faded as everyone turned their attention back upon the small boy, who seemed more interested in Zyro than anything else at the moment. As he always had for all of the years, Zyro got the message, and stepped forward slightly to be closer to the unnamed boy.  
The blue-haired boy looked down slightly, a guilty expression once more making itself present on his young features.  
"I'm sorry for all of this..." He apologized in a small voice, "I never meant for any of this to happen to you... To _any_ of you.."  
Zyro's blue eyes softened slightly, gazing with slight pity at the boy he had known all his life, and yet, at the same time, had only just met.  
"Why are you blaming yourself? It's not your fault..." The Ifraid Blader said reassuringly. However, the other was anything but reassured.  
The smallest hint of a smile just barely pulled at the blue-haired boy's lips, showing that he appreciated Zyro's kindness even after everything, but was not convinced by those words. He simply shook his head and looked up once more, just barely standing eye-level with the raven.  
"All of this always has been, because I've never been able to control my powers..." The smaller child spoke, once more breaking eye contact, but this time seeming to absently center his attention somewhere by Zyro's neck, where his eyes would probably be anyway if they were standing chest to chest, "It's always been that way... And that's why I was never able to control Alcorin, and why he's able to get rid of me..." There was a brief silence, but then the boy spoke again, once more looking into Zyro's eyes with his own golden-brown ones, "...We've always known each other. I've always been the one there beside you, even if not directly... I'm the reason for all of this, because I've never been able to control what I have, or what I had. But you..."  
There was another brief moment of silence, and the indigo-haired boy looked like he was searching for what to say, even though he didn't have too.  
Zyro knew that as well, for a part of him seemed to anticipate the words that would come, as if he had come back from the past and knew them already.  
But that wasn't the reason why... No.  
A part of him - though he had never been sure which part that was - knew why.

"Simply because of who you are... Because of who _you_ are..." The boy said, hesitating for a moment before continuing, "... You'll be able to control it far better than either of us ever could.. And you know why I'm saying that..."  
Another moment of silence, though this one was dragged out. Somebody probably would've said something about the frequent pauses (most likely Kira) by now, probably in an attempt to break the almost uncomfortable silences that continuously followed, but nobody did.  
Somehow, it felt like they were unable too as they watched Zyro and the other boy nearly stare at each other, sky blue into golden-brown, unsaid meanings and words passing between them as silent messages that nobody but the two of them could hear.  
And as Zyro looked into those eyes that resembled Gingka's so much that it was hard to tell the difference, he realized.  
But then again, hadn't a part of him always known?  
His eyes widened anyway, a look of surprise and almost disbelief coming onto his features.

"Wait, you..." He began, unsure of what to say as words seem to fail him, "Y-you don't mean... That..."  
The small boy gave him a small smile, sad and apologetic, his eyes speaking far more lengths than he himself likely ever could.  
"You've known me..." He said softly in that quiet voice of his, "I don't lie to you... You should go now, before something really bad happens.."  
Zyro looked like he wanted to ask more questions, get more answers than he had, but he didn't. He knew that now wasn't the time, and a part of him knew that he already had all the answers he was looking for from his friend - a being that he had known for longer than he had even known himself.

"W-wait, how do we leave, exactly?" Ren asked, a confused look on her face.  
"Yeah, this place doesn't look like it has an exit door..." Benkei said in agreement, glancing around at their surroundings briefly.  
"I can send you where you need to be..." The boy said simply, "I'm capable of that much.. And I owe you far more than I can give..." Madoka looked upon the blue-haired child with pity and sorrow in her turquoise orbs, unable to help the forlorn feelings that were directed towards the boy.  
Despite having the face that most of them had very well learned to be afraid of, there was nothing about this boy that spoke anything of the Alcorin they knew but the appearance, and even that was nothing like him.  
"If we can save Gingka, than maybe we can help you too." The brunette suggested, somewhat to the surprise of everyone else, "There has to be-"

"No." The boy said suddenly, his small voice firm and resolute though still that quivering shyness that had been talking to them this whole time.  
Still, it surprised most of them, and Maru even jumped slightly as though in fear that the sheep before them would turn out to be the wolf. They did know that that couldn't be true, considering how much had been explained to them about all of this from the boy, but it was still surprising nonetheless.  
The blue-haired boy looked at no one, his forlorn eyes aiming themselves downward slightly, somewhere around their feet, or at least Zyro's, who stood only about 3 or so feet away from the other. It was a moment before he spoke again.

"Don't even try..." He said, his soft voice still firm and giving off a vibe that he wasn't up for arguing about it, "After everything I've done, I'm not worth that... I'm not worth being saved, but Gingka is. He's worth more than I could ever be, which is why you need to leave me..."  
His voice broke briefly, and Zyro almost felt as if his heart did too. No one knew what to make of all of this, how to react to this boy in general, how to speak to him, how to behave towards him. But, either way, he was a sorrowful sight to say the least.

"We-"

"No, Zyro." He said firmly, though his voice cracked, the broken sound becoming even more broken than it already was - re-broken, perhaps, but no one could say that for sure - as he looked down towards the ground, "I'm already beyond saving at this point, after all of these years.. It doesn't matter what happens to me. You can throw me to the flames for all I care, just.. Please... Don't abandon him..." Voice tearful, he looked up quickly, a pleading look on his young face as tears rimmed his eyelashes, "Don't abandon my brother!.."  
Though he had those words before so many times in his head, Zyro still felt like his heart stopped when he heard them this time.  
Even still, he kept himself calm, and nodded.  
"We won't." He said, a promise made without gestures, and everyone else seemed to agree with him.  
The plan now was to save Gingka anyway, so it was a promised hopefully kept either way. Besides, it wasn't like they could really say no to someone like him - with a face that they had previously found so frightening reduced to nothing more than that of a quivering child.

At that answer, the boy simply nodded, taking a moment to wipe at his eyes with sleeve, dampening the white fabric.  
He sniffled slightly before looking back up, regaining his calm composure as best as he could because he knew it was probably stupid to cry in front of them. Nobody said a thing as they let him, many of them looking at him with slightly softer expressions than they had probably started out with, before he looked back up to them. He scanned their faces for a few moments, as if checking to assure that they were truly ready for what he was about to throw them into.  
In truth, they probably never would be.  
But that didn't matter.  
Breathing evenly, he closed his eyes a moment and then opened them again, the formally golden-brown irises having turned red, the light that formally reflected off of them nowhere to be found.  
He raised his hand to them, as though to hold them in their place, before speaking in a voice that they had heard many times before, resonating with the power he had been born with, and, strangely enough, they didn't find themselves afraid.

 **"Go to him."** He commanded.

And before they had the time to register anything further, they were gone.


	31. Chapter 30 - Into Damnation

Chapter 30 - Into Damnation

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As crazy as human lives could be, it was highly doubtful that most people would ever expect to suddenly be cornered by a pack of angry wolves, either because of someone trespassing even if unknowingly, onto their territory, or simply because of the joy of the hunt.  
Sakyo thought about this as he stood guard before the younger boy behind him, a stone sentry armed with nothing more than a magical spinning top, and got down in a staring match with at least a dozen wolves - maybe 2 dozen, probably more, he couldn't bring himself to count, because that would distract him - that seemed less than concerned with the two of them at the moment.  
As much as he probably would've liked to deny it, he knew that there was probably no way out of this, trapped between a stone cliff and at least 2 dozen sets of sharp teeth. Nothing and nobody seemed to move except for Takanosuke behind him, who gingerly blinked away the dizzy spell that he had undergone and what he was practically becoming prone too. Blood dripped out of his nose, this time dropping down and staining his sweater, but the wolves disregarded that, which, of course, was far beyond strange. If they noticed the blood at all, smelt it in the air, however little of it there was, they showed no sign of it, nor did they show any sign of being remotely alive, their faces all blank, eyes dead, all still as statues as though they had suddenly been stuffed within a fraction of a moment.  
But that wasn't the case, and Sakyo believed that he knew what might be going on, but he didn't move. He wasn't about to take the chance that what he suspected was wrong and leave Takanosuke unprotected. In the state that he was currently in, even recovering, he wasn't about to let any harm come to him as long as he was able to help it.  
He quickly glanced back towards the blonde, who he saw was now looking up with somewhat glassy eyes, clouded with the pain and discomfort that he could only guess had faded by now, and slowly registering once more what was going on. He made no move to wipe away the blood from his nose even as his eyes cleared of their visible haze. He was probably afraid that if he made any other sudden movements that it would provoke the canines in front of them to attack, but he also managed to notice that they looked less than concerned with the thought of pouncing on them at any given moment. Still, the curly-haired blonde did nothing, his body visibly shaking with apprehension and fear and probably the aftermath of the headache that he had just gotten.  
Sakyo knew at least somewhat how he felt, and looked back towards the predators that surrounded them, Dragoon held out in front of him in its launcher, ready to be fired off at a split moment should the wolves change their mind.

And, after what seemed like an eternity filled with tension, filled with the fear that they might just get ripped apart before they even knew it was happening, they did change their minds - just not in the way that either of the two had expected.  
The first reaction came from the biggest looking wolf in the group, not much bigger than the others but definitely having the presence of being far more superior than the rest of the pack that stood with it, that was almost undeniably the leader, when its ears and tail twitched slightly, as though it had heard something or come to a sudden realization. Sakyo had instantly tensed at this, his fingers shaking from behind up and in the same position for so long and silent prayers being chanted in his head that he didn't care about being ashamed about, ready at any moment to launch into an attack if they did first.  
Takanosuke also noticed, and he tensed too, feeling his heart beating rapidly in his chest as the chills shot up his spine. Both boys fully expected for the leader to initiate the next actions, as it probably always did when it came to the rest of the pack, and it did.  
Only the alpha did not move to attack, but simply turned around the opposite way, its face blank and eyes as dead as ever, and trotted off towards the direction of the woods, as though the two humans it had originally be changing weren't even there. Although no noises were made, the rest of the pack seemed to get the message, and turned away as well, all of them heading off back in the direction of the forest and disappearing over the hill that they had come over and into the treeline, leaving Takanosuke and Sakyo alone in the silence, backs against the stone cliff behind them. Neither of them dared to move for a few moments longer, just in case the wolves were playing a trick and would decide to attack when they let their guard down, but there was no way that they were _that_ smart, right?

Slowly, Sakyo lowered Dragoon, his arms silently thanking him for finally being released from their suspension in the air, slowly disconnecting the Bey from the launcher and putting both pieces away. He heard Takanosuke let out a big sigh of relief and weariness and turned to look back at his companion with concern in his red eyes.  
"Are you alright?" He asked the younger after turning towards him. Takanosuke looked up towards him from the ground that he had previously fixated upon, looking to sway slightly on his feet as he did so but managing to stay upright anyway, the pure light of some sort of fading exhilaration in his cerulean eyes that Sakyo could only recognize as fear.  
Fear that had been so intense in one moment, and was even still there even after the moment had passed and everything was okay. Sakyo couldn't blame him, for in a situation like the one they had just been it, was quite reasonable to be scared - even with his pride, he could admit for Takanosuke's sake that he had been scared as well.  
After a moment that seemed to be spent in collecting himself, Takanosuke abruptly nodded, taking his eyes away from Sakyo's and looking down slightly again.  
"Yeah..." He said, "I'm okay.." Takanosuke brought up his arm and took to just wiping the blood dripping from his nose onto his hoodie sleeve, probably figuring that it wouldn't really matter since it was already dirtied with it from earlier and that he didn't really have anyone to impress since they were out in the mountains.  
Wordlessly, Sakyo stepped closer to the Griffin Blader and gently placed a hand on a flat of his head though he barely seemed to brush the soft blonde curls, a gesture of comfort Takanosuke was able to understand from the Dragoon Blader.  
Neither of them were entirely too good when it came to voicing emotions (Sakyo far more than Takanosuke, since the blonde could at least still talk about emotions even if not very well), so physical affection, no matter how vague, was among the best ways to express emotions and feelings. Cerulean eyes briefly glanced up towards the redhead, a troubled expression on young features.

A smile, however slightly apologetic, managed to make it's way onto Takanosuke's lips. "Thanks Sakyo.." The Griffin Blader said in gratitude, and Sakyo simply nodded in understanding, taking his hand away from the other. There was a few more moments of silence between the two of them before Takanosuke broke it again, bringing both of them back into the reality that they had briefly secluded themselves from.  
"What do think that was all about?" He asked, looking towards the forest they had originally come from, "With the wolves and stuff.. They didn't seem like they really wanted to hurt us... That much."

"I'm not sure." Sakyo said in reply, looking back over in the same direction, "But I have a feeling that may have orchestrated by Alcorin, if he really is here." Takanosuke glanced over at the older for a moment before looking back to the forest.  
"I guess so.." He agreed somewhat, "But if he was the one behind that, why wouldn't he finish us off?" He a feeling he might know why as his thoughts trailed back to the visions that had appeared before his eyes just minutes earlier, showing him things that he didn't fully understand. But as well as he knew, it very likely meant something, as practically all of his visions had thus far.  
"I'm not sure." Sakyo said again, "But we should leave here before they decide to come back." Takanosuke nodded his head.  
"Okay." He said in agreement, wanting nothing more than to just get away from this spot at the moment. He had left behind that teacup they had purchased back in the forest, but he didn't really feel like going back for it. Not with the wolves out there.  
Silently, the Griffin Blader looked behind the both of them at the cliff that they had previously been backed up against, a steep slope that looked impossible to climb with barely anything to act as a single foothold at its 90 degree angle. He shivered at the thought of being trapped against him, having nowhere to run as you became the hunted and were torn apart with no salvation, and he quickly tried to push those thoughts from his mind. _Stone and rocks..._ The contents of the sights that had been brought before his eyes came back to him, the images of rocks and stone, just like quite a bit of their surroundings were now. But, thinking about it, what he had seen, however blurry, looked something like a cave, entirely made out of gray rock and stone and just barely illuminated by a light source that he couldn't see.

A cave...

A cave...

Where would there be a cave? Whatever compelled him to look over to the right, down towards the ground several meters away against the side of the steep cliff, Takanosuke was unable to identify. But he looked over anyway, and didn't question it when he saw something that looked to be a thin depression or ravine against the side of the cliff, made entirely of rock.  
Furrowing his blonde eyebrows a bit, Takanosuke made his way over to the depressing ground, cringing softly at the way his vision spotted again like it had earlier that day but doing his best to ignore it, on slightly shaky legs.  
Sakyo looked over towards his companion, raising an eyebrow slightly as he watched the other walk over along the cliff towards a rocky ravine that seemed to go down into the side of the mountain.  
"Takanosuke?" He questioned, watching the other as he walked over to the rocky depression in the earth.  
Takanosuke didn't answer, though, and continued walking down the slight slant of the ground they were on towards the fairly deep yet dry ravine. The Dragoon Blader knit his eyebrows together slightly, his red eyes fixated hard on his traveling companion, feeling like he knew what was going on. He was never sure what went on with Takanosuke's visions, since he himself was not able to see them, but from what he had seen and gone through with the blonde so far, halfway trance-like states were definitely apart of the side effects that came with them. They usually happened right around when they happened too, so he could only conclude that that was what it was.  
That decided, Sakyo walked over towards the younger of the two of them, watching as he shimmied down the slope that lead into the fairly deep, rocky ravine and following in his footsteps. The light of the setting sun, now just peering over the rocky points of the mountains, was still able to illuminate the slightly darker space they walked through, letting both of them walk across the rocks and stone without tripping.  
Without speaking, Sakyo let Takanosuke lead the way, since the blonde seemly knew at least somewhat where he was going. Maybe whatever that supposed vision that he had (he could only assume it was that because there was nothing else that caused Takanosuke's little episodes) had, had shown him something. Clearly, he (Takanosuke) was trying to find out what exactly it meant. The Griffin Blader kept his eyes on the walls around them, cerulean orbs observing closely but still being sure to watch where he was going.  
Both of them continued heading deeper into the ravine, which proved to actually be quite deep, albeit barren from all signs of water. Maybe it had dried out a long time, but they couldn't be sure of that. Takanosuke kept walking through the ravine, his gaze never ceasing along the length of the rocky walls, and Sakyo followed him, trusting in the boy that he was onto something. And, almost as expected, he certainly was.  
As both of them came onto another slope, ready to head down it, Takanosuke stopped in his tracks, a barely audible and small gasp escaping his lips, and Sakyo could see why, for he was just as surprised. At the very bottom of the slope, where it fully dipped and then traveled up again only to further along, the was a fairly large gap in the stone - a cave. Fairly circular, the rocks and stones around it almost seeming to have been arranged as best as they could have, as though it were something special that someone had found and they wanted to make the entrance almost presentable. But really, who would do that when there was nothing but wilderness around you?  
It really wasn't like anyone was just going to come along.  
But they had, even if not just by coincidence.

Sakyo glanced down towards the Griffin Blader in front of him for a moment, but the other didn't return it, and simply started down the slope as they had originally planned. Sakyo followed him down the rocky slope, and to the front of the cave where they both came to stand, staring into its slightly illuminated darkness. Of course, a cave was usually naturally dark anyway, but this just somehow seemed more menacing, and Sakyo could feel the goosebumps that prickled his skin underneath his coat. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Takanosuke shivering softly, his skin slightly paler than it usually was with nerves and intimidation. The Dragoon Blader simply put a hand on his shoulder, a hold that was firm yet comforting to the younger all the same.  
Takanosuke breathed out softly, trying to will himself to stop shaking as much as he could in knowing that Sakyo was there. Sakyo had always been there in these kinds of moments since they had met, even if he had been all too willing to comfort back in the earlier stages of their friendship.  
Everything would be fine... Only, that was something he couldn't entirely convince himself of. Despite that, he simply nodded his head and licked his bottom lip before moving forward again, heading into the slightly illuminated darkness of rock and stone that he felt he somewhat recognized.  
The red-and-white-haired blader followed closely behind him, both of them working to navigate themselves through the darkness that their eyes were able to adjust to fairly quickly. Takanosuke had a few moments where he almost tripped, and Sakyo had bumped into a wall as they were walking, but other than that, navigating their way through the almost organized cave wasn't too bad. They weren't really sure how long they were in there, and it had probably been a few minutes that had felt like hours before they both saw light just around one of the few corners they had passed around - the light of the setting sun, an golden-orange color that somehow made its way into the cavern.  
Both of them turned the rocky corner and were met with the day's last light, pouring in through a gap in the rocks far above them, a hole that shone down into the inside of the mountain from many meters above, and too steep and uneven in places for anyone to climb.  
Not that they would likely have any need to, but... Who knew?  
Takanosuke looked up the seemingly natural skylight for a moment before drawing his gaze in front of him once more, looking through the stream of light in front of him to the solid wall of stone that stood just a meter or so in front of them.. No, he recognized this... He had seen it just a few minutes ago.  
It wasn't a wall - it was a door.  
A door carved from the stone, that looked very convincingly like the rocks and stones around them itself.

"There's a door here." Takanosuke announced, bringing Sakyo's attention to it. Sakyo's eyes, which had originally be focused on the fading light coming from above, looked over to where Takanosuke was looking, and saw the stone-made door, his eyes not being fooled by the almost nonchalant appearance of it.  
"Good job.." The Dragoon Blader said, glancing down towards Takanosuke and meeting his eyes briefly, "I wouldn't have expected that."

"Do you think this is where Alcorin is?" Takanosuke asked, though he knew that that was probably a stupid to ask at the moment.  
If Sakyo thought so, he didn't really voice it, but instead said, "I'm not sure... You tell me." The two of them had played this vague and uneventful game before, where Sakyo would deliberately avoid answering to get Takanosuke's honest and independent opinion. Takanosuke had questioned at it at first (and Sakyo really hadn't answer at the time, but, then again, was there really a need too?) but he had eventually grown used to it, understanding through words that were never spoken that it was Sakyo's way of testing him - to see if he could really answer for himself instead of just following along behind people all the time. As usual, the blonde was always eager to prove that he could do something he was being tested at, especially if it was from Sakyo, so he always complied, even if he wasn't sure himself.  
"I think so." He said, staring at the door that stood not far away from them, fairly small - Sakyo would probably have to duck while he was walking inside - but a little bit intimidating all the same, "I would probably make sense, considering the stories we heard and how Alcorin probably wants to make sure nobody finds him."

 _But if that were so, why would he lead them here with the wolves if they had truly been under his control?_  
That was a question Takanosuke considered only after, but Sakyo decided not to point it out or bring it up, so he didn't either. At the moment, it didn't have any real meaning, but it still unsettled him nonetheless.  
The red-and-white-haired blader just behind him nodded his head.  
"Let's go, then." He said, and Takanosuke agreed. Both of them walked up to the door, the full height of the makeshift frame reaching only up to Sakyo's nose, and pushed it open.  
The doors gave rather easily, scrapping against the stones beneath them for a moment before swinging open on hinges that were probably on the inside, opening up to a hall that was still made of stone, though was much more squared-off, clean-shaven. Both of them looked down the long corridor that was shadowed by darkness, only being able to get an idea of how long it was from the torches that lined the walls a ways down to provide light.  
Both of them glanced at each other, silent words passing between them as they came to their unified decision. Although, there probably wasn't truly a need to make one - they had made it a long time ago, when they had first gone in search of the psychopath that they would more than likely closer to than they ever had been.  
Both of them stepped through the threshold of the doorway - Sakyo predictably having to duck in order to do so - and into the long corridor before them, which slowly shaped itself from the stone behind them in the smooth and proper hall that was partially expected.  
Both of them knew what they were walking into, since it was what they had expected to be walking into eventually in this whole journey, but they would be lying if they said that they were prepared for it.  
How could you be, when you were moving to face off against a sociopath that wasn't even fully human? There was no preparing for that.  
There was only the hope of winging it, and that was a dangerous hope to have. They both knew that anything could happen, good and bad, and that there was no preparing, that they shouldn't have any hope that all of it would turn out okay, because chances were that it wouldn't.  
The only hope that was to be found between the two of them was from Takanosuke, who silently hoped beyond all hope that after this the feeling of dread that was almost bad to the point of nausea would go away, even as it seemed to worsened as they ventured deeper in the corridors of the temple within the mountain. For a brief moment did he glance back at the doors they had come through and that were slowly becoming smaller and smaller as they walked away from them.  
He briefly thought about running back that way, out of here, out of the way of danger and back towards the safety that was _anywhere but here_.  
But he knew he couldn't do that.  
So he turned away, facing forward into the torch-lit darkness they walked into.  
He had a sudden urge to cling to Sakyo, who walked just beside him, but he fought against the need to do that too.

It would be fine...

It would all be fine...

But there was no way he could convince himself that that was actually true...

* * *

The first thing any of them, though perhaps not even they themselves were really sure who, noticed as any one of them began to stir was that the ground was much harder than it had originally been. Not soft, like the sand they had been laying and standing on previously. No, whatever they were laying on - which was _hopefully_ solid ground - was firm and hard, cold to the touch, and slightly uncomfortable.  
But, then again, laying on hard ground never really was all that comfortable to begin with. Zyro might have been the first one to stir, he wasn't exactly sure, his eyelids once more retaining that heavy feeling that came with waking up from sleep or unconsciousness. He was on his side this time, so his blurry vision wasn't fixated upon the roof or sky or whatever happened to be above him. Instead he looked at what he believed a wall - a stone wall, which a few other figures around him in both direct sight and his peripheral.  
There looked to be Kira, and Maru, and maybe the Unabara brothers if he was indeed comprehensible enough to make out a lab coat and blue hair... The rest of them may have been around them as well, but he couldn't see them.  
All that he knew was that they were there, or at least some of them were, wherever 'there' really was... But 'there' probably wasn't too hard to figure out, in all honesty.  
After all, that boy, the friend that he'd had since forever, had sent them there with what little he had. But that wasn't currently on Zyro's mind as he worked to clear it, to be able to think clearly enough to really _think_ about things as logically as he could.

Slowly, he propped himself up, letting out a soft groan as he noticed that he was slightly sore. He balanced himself on his left elbow and his right hand, and brought himself up into a bit of an awkward kneeling position that wasn't really that comfortable, but was the best that he was willing to do at the moment. Zyro gingerly brought up a hand to his temple, nursing the small pulsing headache that came from just one side of his head.  
Everything seemed to be happening so fast all of a sudden, and while it was unexpected, he supposed that it was also quite beneficial.  
Or at least it was so far, on their part.  
They had so suddenly come across something that lead them into a different dimension that he could only guess might be some sort of purgatory - that sounded like the only logical explanation, considering that they were still alive, and being alive in the afterlife didn't really make much sense - where they had met Ryo Hagane, who had told them all about Alcorin and that Gingka was alive, and then met a younger version of Alcorin that had been his best friend in his (Zyro's) dreams for years, who had then sent them here.  
'Here' was supposedly where Alcorin was, which more than likely meant Mount Tsukuba, where they had originally been heading. Well, at least it was pretty neat shortcut for them had taken. Feeling the headache finally subsiding, Zyro shook his head softly and looked around him once more at his friends, his vision still a bit blurry but better than it had been when he had first woken up.  
They were all here.  
Somewhat cluttered in one spot, all looking to be at least most of the way unconscious still, but they were all here.  
That was good.  
He had to wake them up, if they were going to get anyway. Being in a place that belonged to Alcorin, it definitely wasn't a good idea to just laze around, even if you didn't have too much say while you were knocked out. Groaning and grunting softly, his limbs still a little stiff, Zyro made his way over to the two people closest to him - Kira and Maru.  
He took both of them by the shoulders and shook them gently.

"Hey, Kira, Maru." He said loud enough for them to hopefully hear them, continuing to shake them as softly as possible. Within a few more moments, an irritable half-sigh half-groan escaped Kira, his one visible eyebrow furrowing in irritation. Maru herself simply shook her head lightly as her eyes fluttered open, looking just about dazed as Zyro had felt earlier. It wasn't really a surprise, considering that relatively the same thing had happened to them earlier when they were purgatory.  
"Ow.." She said softly as she slowly sat up, mainly holding herself up with her hands beside her as she tried to clear away the drowsiness.  
Kira did the same, though he seemed way more irritable about it. Considering it was Kira, Zyro wasn't too surprised, but he still smiled at him as well as Maru in knowing that they were alright. Almost as if on cue, several other small groans and grunts were heard from around them. Zyro looked around at the others, and saw that they too were beginning to stir, which was definitely a good thing.  
"Are you guys okay?" Zyro asked before clearing his throat as he watched a few them slowly get up from being sprawled out on the floor of what now appeared to be a fairly large stone corridor lit by torches.  
"Been better..." Kite said while rubbing the back of his neck, "But fine, either way.."

"We really need to stop ending up in places this way." Madoka said softly.  
"Gets us places, doesn't it?" Benkei asked somewhat jokingly. Madoka, rubbing one eye gently, smiled at that remark and made to stand up, which was soon followed by most of everybody else as they fought off the drowsiness that tended to try and come after them again.  
"At least we know that we're where we wanted to be.." Ren pointed out, glancing around at the stone walls on either side of them and the stone ceiling.  
"True." Madoka agreed, looking down either way of the corridor they had landed themselves in, "It looks like we'll just have to find our way through this place on our own.."

"That might take awhile, considering this is a mountain.." Kira pointed out, crossing his arms over his chest.  
"I wouldn't be able to make a map for us, either..." Maru claimed, and all of them saw that she had brought up her holographic screen from the bracelet on her wrist. From the looks of it, the time was back to normal, though judging by the fact that it didn't seem to be moving forward at all there was no signal for it to cling to, "We're inside a mountain, so the satellite this is connected to probably wouldn't be able to tell us much."

"That's fine." Madoka said with a small smile, gently patting her protege's pink hair before looking back up at the rest of the group, "This is a temple, so it probably shouldn't be that hard to navigate once we figured it out - as long as it's not like the Mist Mountain Shrine.." Shinobu shrugged his shoulders, looking up towards the brunette.  
"This is Alcorin we're talking about." He reminded them, "He isn't going to be happy that we're here, especially since we're looking to get Gingka back. We've seen how he is with those types of things."  
None of them could deny the truth in that. They had faced Alcorin before, roughly two weeks ago before they had believed that everything really was fine, and they had seen and experienced the torment and agony that he could inflict when he wanted to. Normally, they probably would've thought that they could deal with it this time around, seeing as how they had done so before and came out at least relatively okay - that was before they had found out that he had Gingka, still keeping in his comatose state out of some sick and deprived love that he had for his twin brother. That in itself was still a very hard thing to actually acknowledge.  
Clearly, things weren't going to be same as they were the first time around, since they had apparently, according to the boy that they had met within that strange world, 'not faced him yet'.  
Or at least not _really_.  
That thought was enough to make them nervous, all kinds of ideas of what Alcorin really was capable of coming to mind and making all of them less than comfortable.

What they had gone up against was a man that had been doing everything in his power to make sure he got what he was after.  
And now what they were _going_ to go up against was a demi-god hell bent on keeping it.

"Hey, we went up against his dad a few years back." Benkei pointed out, a decently reassuring look on his face, "I think we can handle him and manage to get Gingka back, too."  
That bit was enough to make some of them at least a bit more reassured, but not by much. Nemesis had been one thing all that time ago, but that had been when Gingka was still able to do something about it. Now, he was in the hands of the enemy itself, entirely incapacitated - of course, that had been relatively the same with Doji, but this definitely wasn't Doji.  
If anything, Alcorin was worse than Doji had been, even with how twisted the man was in getting the things they wanted. They probably would have made excellent friends, if they had ever cared to meet. Either way, the thought that they were mostly alone in this, fighting against the son of a god, was anything but reassuring.

What was even less reassuring was the dark chuckle that suddenly sounded from somewhere around them after Benkei had finished his sentence. The sudden sound, which echoed softly against the stone walls and seemed to make the torches flicker slightly, made all of them instantly jump onto high alert, (for as best as their weary minds could do) and immediately jump into the action of being prepared to fight. Many pairs of eyes all looked down both ends of the corridor they stood in, gazing into the darkness that was only illuminated by the torches that lined the walls.  
Truthfully, something like this had been expected, but not this soon... As far as they ever seen, Alcorin wasn't one to immediately pounce on them to fight without playing with them first, but maybe this time was different.  
After all, they did want Gingka back now that they knew he was alive, and considering how much the psychopath had already done the first time just to get it he probably wasn't willing to give them any chances. But _where was he?.._

"Aw.. You look scared all of a sudden.." Said a voice that echoed off the walls in the same way and make shivers crawl up their spines, "I don't suppose that's because of me, is it?"  
That voice wasn't Alcorin's, and they knew that for sure. It didn't sound the same, it didn't have that same odd inkling of power to it that was able to crawl into one's head and and slither under their skin, but it was haunting nonetheless.  
And familiar, too...  
Most of them could've recognized that voice, only it was so much different, too different to be _him_...  
So it couldn't be him, because as much as it sounded so similar, that wasn't his voice.  
Right?

"Where are you?" Madoka asked cautiously, keeping Maru close to her as they all looked around, practically back to back to assure that they wouldn't than attacked from either side without noticing it first. Another chuckle sounded, and the flames of the flames around them seemed to waver slightly, as though they themselves were intimidated.  
"Me?" The familiar yet unfamiliar voice asked with mock innocence, "I'm not anywhere... But at the same time, I'm also right in front of you.. _I_ really can't say for sure, because I'm not even really here.. I'm just the spiritual manifestation of what was, what is, and what will be.. But I _doubt_ you'd understand that."

"'Ya got me.." Kira muttered, a rather irritated look on his face. All that came from that was a small laugh of amusement.  
"You really are all _so_ cute..." The voice said playfully, "But whatever.." Suddenly, the all the torches at one side went out, leaving only darkness about 2 torches away from them on that side. All of them drew their attention to this side, hearts beating rapidly in chests and hands hovering dangerously close to whipping out launchers that wouldn't have to be used, little to their knowledge. "That won't do anything to save you, after all.." The voice continued, the owner of it walked out just barely into the light. Of course, _walked_ probably wasn't the right word.  
You probably wouldn't have said 'walked' as much as you would have said glided, but even that wasn't the right word, because the heeled boots that 'walked' a few paces forward just barely past the darkness made no sound.  
There was no sound of rustling as the long blue trench coat did so. There was no faint brushing sound of long red bangs against the fair skin of cheeks as they did so. All there was was that voice, that so familiar voice that none of recognized, and still didn't, even as they saw the face that they had thought to have been wiped from this earth.

Gingka's face.

But... It wasn't his face, because it couldn't be.  
As frighteningly identical as it was, there was nothing in it that spoke of _Gingka_.. The face was the same, but the eyes weren't. Even so, the moment they all saw him, none of them dared to move, breaths held to the point of exhaustion and eyes staring to the point where it hurt. At these reactions, the Gingka look-alike from across the hall just smiled - but it was no smile that held the same warmth that Gingka always had.

"What? No words?" The look-alike questioned playfully, "Considering what I've heard of all of you, I would've figured that you'd have much more to say by this point.."

"Cut it out, Alcorin!" Ren demanded half-irritably, though her voice sounded slightly choked, "This is getting old!" The look-alike just laughed.  
"Alcorin?" He questioned, his smile ever remaining on his face, "Really? You think that he would pull something like this again? I sort of thought you were more reasonable than that... Besides.. Last I remember, my brother actually exists on this plain.." In a split moment, the look-alike materialized into the darkness behind them, leaving their eyes scowering about, "Where as _I_ do not." All of them looked behind them to discover that the supposed apparition had appeared down the other side of the hallway, the torches on that end extinguished as well. "Or at least not _yet_ , anyway.." He continued before he let out a small chuckle, his amused look never faltering.  
"What the hell are you?" Madoka questioned, "What have you done with Gingka?!"

"That's rude." He said with mock innocence, 'stepping' closer without his boots ever making a sound on the stone floor, the still lit torches of the hall wavering as he moved closer, "Making accusations of me so quickly? You haven't asked my _name_ yet, but..." Once more, the look-alike disappeared in shadows and reappeared on the other side of them, causing all of their hearts to beat in apprehension, knowing that _something_ was coming but not sure what, "But even so, I don't _need_ to tell you that... That can come from Gingka himself, if you ever _do_ reach him before I fully do."

"What are you talking about?" Zyro asked cautiously, doing his best not to shake even though the darkness down both halls on either side of them called his name, reached out with their winding shadows towards him and pulling at his clothing, making him feel very small.  
"Oh, you'll find out." The look-alike assured with a nod, "Either way, it's not like you can ever _actually_ stop me.. I've always been there, I'm here, and I'll always be here... Too bad dear Gingka is just starting to realize that for the first time in his miserable life."

"No!" Maru said forcefully, "We can save him from you. Just like we can we save him from Alcorin."  
The look-alike simply closed his eyes, that smile ever on his face as he chuckled and shook his head in clear amusement. When he opened them again, the irises were a deep crimson, menacing in all appearance and causing Maru to visibly flinch and cling to Madoka's leg as she originally had been.  
"You really _are_ sure about that, aren't you" The look-alike asked, crimson eyes looking upon them with a gaze that now revealed so much more, and yet showed nothing at all.

The craving for death, destruction, the hunger for screaming, crying, and yet all that was in them was a vast nothingness that could be described as 'nothing' or 'insanity'.

Madoka's eyes widened as she looked into those eyes, red, devoid of light. She had seen those eyes before, not just with Alcorin, no...  
She had seen them on _Gingka_ before, long ago, when they had barely known him, and when Ryuga had been the biggest threat they had known at the time.

"Well, we'll see..." The look-alike continued, chuckling softly, "Gingka _did_ always have a thing with pulling through, after all, which has always been something that I've admired, but hated at the same. So I welcome you to go ahead and _try_ if you so dearly believe that that is what's best... Who knows? Maybe you can pull him back from his own eternity.. But you should know..." Crimson eyes fixated solely on Zyro, holding him in place, that dreaded smile never leaving his lips, "Whoever you bring back, it won't be him."

"Who are you?" Zyro asked in a small voice, trying to keep his shoulders from shaking as they were.  
Looking pleased, the look-alike chuckled, and answered, " _I_ am what he's always been... I am what he is. And I am what he will _always_ be."

With that, he disappeared - and so did the light of the torches, leaving all of them in blackness.

"Hey, what the hell?!" Ren exclaimed as she was suddenly unable to see, jumping back slightly and bumping into Kite.  
"Well that's wonderful." Kira said sarcastically.  
"He could have at least left us with some light!" Maru complained before she pulled her backpack off of her shoulders and fumbled with the zipper. It was the good thing she had thought to bring a flashlight along! It wasn't long before the white light turned on and illuminated the darkness a little bit, allowing most of them to adjust to it.  
"That's handy." Eight commented from somewhere to the left.  
"Hopefully there's more torches around this place than just this hallway." Madoka said with a small sigh, "You can barely see anything."

"Yeah, well I think Mr. Night-Vision Eye Patch over here can see just fine.." Ren said with a gesture over to Kira, who could be identified by the green glow coming from the eye-patch that covered half of his face.  
"You have a Night-Vision setting in that?" Shinobu questioned, actually sounding somewhat impressed.  
"Yes." Kira answered simply, not sounding too overly-enthused himself.  
"Well that's good." Benkei commented, shuffling around a bit and blinking excessively to get himself to see a bit better.  
"Looks like we'll have to just find our way from here, I guess." Madoka concluded, "We'll have to be careful, though."

"Way ahead of you.." Shinobu said reassuringly.  
"Zyro?" Ren suddenly questioned, a concerned tone in her voice that drew all of their attention. Zyro hadn't spoken since the lights had gone out, and in the darkness they had almost forgotten he was there. Knowing that it was still a bit too dark for everyone to see very clearly, Maru did the favor of aiming her flashlight - which did illuminate the space they were in quite well - over in Zyro's general direction from where she had last seen him. None of them expected to see what they did.

Now, most of them had known Zyro for a long time,and after being friends with him over the months of the summer, what with battling each other, participating in tournaments, and even saving the world, they believed that they had come to know him quite well. Even Kira believed that he knew him at least somewhat well, or at least enough to sort _know_ him rather than just know things about him. Not really friends, but... _acquaintances_ , one could say. After knowing him for so long, they had seen that he did at relatively well in the dark, that he didn't really mind it all too much.  
Of course, they had never been with him in a place this boxed in, despite being a long corridor, while in the dark, and also not so tightly squeezed together as they had made themselves in a move of defense.  
So when all eyes came upon Zyro's shaking form, his skin ghostly against the white light of Maru's flashlight, blue eyes wide and frightened, breathing heavily and seemingly with difficulty, it was needless to say that they were surprised.

"Zyro?" Madoka questioned, worry instantly bouncing into her voice.  
"Zyro, what's wrong?" Shinobu questioned, the same concern in his own words.  
Zyro didn't answer any of them, nor did it seem like he actually heard what they were saying at all as they kept trying to reach him. All he knew was the darkness around him, sky blue eyes dilated and looking around constantly, but only able to see the darkness.  
The corridor had been fairly boxed in to begin with, but it hadn't bothered him too much at first. Of course, that had been when the torches had still cast their orange light upon the walls, when he had been able to see how much space he had around him.  
Now, in the darkness, even with Maru's flashlight on, everything just seemed _so much smaller_...  
He was barely aware of it as his back hit the wall, barely aware of it when he subconsciously slid down the cold stone until he was sitting on the floor, knees brought up to his chest and his arms at his sides.

"Zyro!"

"Zyro, tell us what's wrong!"

He could hear their voices, but they meant nothing to him at the moment because it's _so small get him out of here_...  
His breathing quickened, his heart beat rapidly in his chest and he _knew_ that he should be counting, like his parents taught him, because that always seemed to calm him down, but in that moment he forgot how to count.  
He forgot numbers, because there was only the blackness, the blackness that made everything feel so much more closed in, made him feel so much smaller.  
His chest hurt, his head hurt, and he just wanted it to _stop_...  
But the shadows around him wouldn't stop as they just reached for him, beckoning, forcing themselves down and around him, encasing him in a shell that he had not been in for a long, long time.  
Suddenly, he was just a child again, 6 years old, locked in his own closet because he had forgotten to prop the door, forgotten that it had a tendency to slide closed when it wasn't propped open, and it had closed and locked behind him.  
For years he had worked to forget about it, developing quite a few habits that he used more than he probably should at his age because he should probably be over it by now but he just wasn't and he wasn't able to help that, but now it all just came flooding back to him, even though it wasn't the same.

However, he was too far gone to care, too far gone to even really realize his actions as he brought his hands up to the sides of his head, pressing them against his temples as his breathing grew dangerously close to hyperventilation.  
He shut out everyone around him, because, in this moment, they weren't there, shut out the cries of concern and worry that he had barely even heard to start with in the first place. He shut out everything else around him, shut out the world, tried to shut out the dark around him, the walls that he could just barely see closing in on him, tried to shut them all out.  
When he finally realized that he couldn't, Zyro screamed...

* * *

Being the quite large temple that it was, it was not expected that Zyro's screams would reach that far before they died out.  
After bouncing off the walls in some areas, they did, only to travel down further down long corridors, seeming to give more life to the torches that the sound reverberated past.  
All inhabitants, human and not, within the temple came to hear it.  
The wolves that were where they were supposed to be, a raven somewhere far off, two companions looking for their way through, one twin that constantly roamed the halls and lay in waiting, and someone who didn't entirely exist on their physical plain but was still ever present. The sound seemed to halt them all, feelings washing over some of them that they could not in their lives describe, whatever it was.  
All they knew was that they heard it, and then it was gone, leaving three not caring, two concerned, and one very pleased.  
That scream rang throughout the halls, echoing off the stone until it came to one last hall where a person who couldn't hear it lay.  
But as it echoed off the walls, that scream that rang with so much life and fear and things unheard of, it broke through a barrier that should have been unable to be broken.

And with a startled gasp, Gingka opened his eyes - _really_ opened his eyes.


	32. Chapter 31 - Unsettled Minds

Chapter 31 - Unsettled Minds

* * *

To say that any of them were surprised seeing Zyro act they way he currently was was an understatement. To say that they were even more surprised more when he started screaming at the top of his lungs was an even bigger understatement.  
While they had never expected Zyro to react like that to anything, it was even more confusing with the fact that it had only started when the torches had gone out and they had been left in complete darkness.  
Was he afraid of the dark? He had never given any implication of that, and, Madoka figured, that since he had always seemed to be able to handle darkly lit places fairly well that it couldn't be that.  
Could it?  
Whatever the reason was, perhaps they could find out quickly enough to be able to calm Zyro down by making it go away if they could. But they would have to do that quickly, if they didn't want Zyro to scream himself hoarse and pass out from the apparent over-stimulation.

"What's wrong with him, I don't understand!" Maru said, standing near the opposite wall of where Zyro was curled up against, a fearful look on her face that was all for the screaming boy.  
"Ren, what happened?!" Madoka questioned, looking over at the girl who had first noticed Zyro starting to act like this, practically yelling over the Ifraid Blader's screaming.  
"I don't know!" Ren exclaimed, a helpless expression in her eyes, "I just noticed that he started breathing weirdly just after it went dark, and then he was like this!"

"So, what, is he scared of the dark?" Shinobu questioned, kneeling down by his best friend and looking very unsure of what to do.  
"Does it matter?!" Benkei bellowed, "We gotta calm him down somehow!"

"Yeah, well, I don't think that yelling is helping him!" Kira shouted at the lot of them with irritation and frustration in his voice, which made most of them shut up. 'Most of them' meaning that that excluding Zyro, who didn't seem like he was going to quiet down for the world. "He's obviously afraid of something around here." Kira said clearly, a look of near intolerance on his face, "And, by the looks of things, yes. It _probably_ does have something to do with the fact that the lights went out." This conclusion that there was most probably something around them that was causing Zyro to react this way was what managed to spur all of them into full-on thinking mode, trying to decipher, over the blood-curdling screaming, what it was.  
However, there really wasn't much around them, so the dark had to be the answer, but was it really?  
If so, than wouldn't Maru's flashlight - which illuminated the space a fair bit - be enough to at least stop him from screaming?  
If not, than it probably wasn't _exactly_ the dark that frightened him... That was when Kite had a sudden thought.

Heavy breathing: that usefully occurred when someone felt deprived of air or they were scared.  
Darting eyes: he was fairly sure a person only did that when they knew or believed something was around them, looking for something, or glancing this way and that out of fear.  
Curling into himself, making himself smaller.  
And... Fidgeting. Zyro wasn't doing much of that at the moment considering he was freaking out, but, now that he really thought about it, Kite _had_ sometimes seem Zyro fidget just a little when they were in the middle of a crowd, like in the Bey Stadium, but he never seemed to do that when they were over at the railing, cheering on their friends.  
He had also noticed Zyro's tense posture and slightly shaking shoulders just a few minutes before, when they had encountered... _Whoever_ that was, but he had just thought it out of being nervous or slightly fearful at the time, as he was sure they all had been. But thinking back on all of it, just small little things that one would think would mean nothing at the time, it made a world's difference now.  
That was what caused him to come to his conclusion, the light of Maru's flashlight reflecting briefly off of his glasses as he looked up slightly.

"Claustrophobic..." He muttered in a voice that was just barely audible and full of realization. Eight looked up at his older brother in slight confusion, and Shinobu looked over at the spiky-haired brunette.  
"What did you say?" The light-haired blader asked. Kite immediately raised his voice so that they could all hear him.  
"He's claustrophobic!" The Leviathan Blader said loudly over Zyro's screaming, which now sounded as if it hurt to do so, but not enough to get him to stop just yet. Kite's words, however, managed to spark something in all of them, bringing them to a realization that had previously been just beyond their reach.  
Of course, it had never been the most _obvious_ thing with Zyro, considering that they had never clued in until now, but most of them still felt a little guilty for not realizing it sooner. Others, like Kira, took it as reasonable.  
Zyro had done a very good job at hiding it for such a long awhile until now, which had probably been because he hadn't _wanted_ to know. When someone didn't want others to know something, they would usually do everything they could to make sure that they didn't.  
"W-well, o-okay." Madoka said with a slight nod, licking her lips a bit as she worked to think quickly, "So, um... Okay, let's, uh, stop crowding around him, it might be making it worse!"  
All of them obeyed almost immediately, backing up against the opposite wall and a little further down the hallway to give Zyro some space and hopefully allow him to settle.

The boy's screaming had now died down into sobbing, his face buried in his knees with his hands on either side of his head, curling into himself as much as he could as though to hide away from the world, away from everything around him.  
Nobody said anything in those few moments that felt like forever, no other sound being made but for everyone's quiet breathing and Zyro's heart-wrenching sobs. It was a moment where nobody really knew what to do or say, and even if they did they completely forgot what it was they _should_ probably do. Just letting Zyro sit there, curled in upon himself and sobbing, probably wasn't the best idea, but nobody was really able to get their brains to work. The mangled silence around them that seemed to last forever was soon broken by Shinobu, who was the only one who really dared to speak at the moment.  
"Zyro?..." The Salamander blader called gently over the raven-haired boy's sobs, which had now decreased in volume to quiet whimpering, his whole body, which now seemed so small, shivering uncontrollably. "Hey, Zyro?" Shinobu called a little more clearly, a slightly unsure look on his face for a moment before speaking again, "Are you okay now?"  
The Salamander blader knew that that was a really stupid question to ask because Zyro clearly wasn't okay and he wasn't even sure that Zyro could hear him at the moment, whether or not he was continuing to block everything out or if his brain still refused to register anything but the supposed boxed in feeling that was more than likely bearing down on him. None of them were really too sure what claustrophobia was like, but a few of them knew enough about it to know that it was definitely able to be traumatizing.  
But, fortunately, it appeared that Zyro could hear him now, for his breathing quickened slightly with his crying and a few resounding sobs escaped him before he was able to shake his head furiously. They could see the tears streaming down the boy's face, the pure terror and agony that embraced him like an old friend, and he seemed to be aware that they could notice.  
Even if he didn't know that they noticed, he moved to cover his eyes anyway with both hands, digging the heels of his palms into them as if to forcefully stop the tears from coming out. Shinobu looked a little uncomfortable but simply nodded his head, looking like he was trying to figure out what to say.  
After all, what _were_ you supposed to say to someone who was having a panic attack? Being sad and grieving was one thing, and most of them knew what that was like to deal with (Kira especially, since he had dealt with that for quite awhile with them), but panic attacks were something that were beyond most of their knowledge.  
Or maybe some or one of them _did_ know how to handle it, but they had forgotten entirely at the moment.

What could they do to help him?...

What, what, what?...

None of them were sure what to say yet, but they at least knew that they had to make it seem less cramped in here, and, chances were, the darkness wasn't helping.  
Madoka had this thought and, remembering that she still might have some matches in her backpack from lighting their previous campfires, slid her backpack off of her shoulders and set it in her lap, silently looking through it as quietly as she could, as though she was worried about disturbing the corrupted and unbearable silence that was only broken by Zyro's crying.

"What's your favorite color?" Kira suddenly asked. In this moment, it was only logical that that question had been directed towards Zyro, but it was so sudden that several of the others looked at the Bahamoote blader as if he were crazy for wanting to know what someone's (Zyro's, specifically) favorite color was at a time like this. Kira saw their looks, and he appeared to have had expected that reaction from the rest of them. He said nothing else, but simply sent them all a look that demanded they trust him on this.  
Normally, someone probably would have questioned him on this - or anyone else who would ask such a seemingly random question like that - but there was just something in the air, something just too disturbing and uncomfortable about the situation, that made all of them keep silent. Seeing that all of them were willing to comply, Kira looked back towards Zyro, an oddly patient (or at least half-patient) expression on his face, waiting for the ginger-ravenette to answer.  
The multicolor-haired blader could only really assume that Zyro had heard him, since he had seemed to hear Shinobu before, and counted on that, whenever he could between his sobs, he would answer. And sure enough, although the words were broken and heart-wrenching, sounded painful to say, Zyro did.  
"G-green..." Zyro said brokenly, rubbing one eye with the heel of his palm as if to try and force the tears away. His sobs were still present, his tears not willing to go away, but his breathing had seemed to calm down enough for him to answer, even though it quavered.

In that moment, the rest of them could see what Kira was trying to do.  
He was trying to distract Zyro from the walls around him, trying to take his mind off of the darkness and closed-in space that his mind was processing by making it process something totally unrelated from that. Thinking about it, that could be the only thing they could do at the moment. Talk about other things. Other things that weren't Alcorin or saving Gingka or all the darkness and agony that they had faced, but things that were just casual things, and let themselves at least pretend that all of this was just normal again, before Alcorin. Perhaps it would be good for all of them, as well as beneficial for Zyro to get him to calm down so that they could hopefully get some torches lit and get him into an open chamber.  
Temples usually had those, didn't they?  
All of them deciding this between themselves without words, they decided to go along with it.

Ren was the first to speak, albeit shakily. "I-I like green too." The Phoenix blader said, forcing a small smile onto her lips, "It's a nice color, right?..."

"Not a creative one.." Shinobu said almost offhandedly, trying to get some humor into the conversation.  
"I like red, myself." Maru said, sounding at least slightly enthusiastic, "Like apples!... Do you like apples, Zyro?" Once more, it took a few moments of sobbing, shaking, and quiet tears before Zyro nodded his head.

However long they went on like that they had no idea, for there was no way for them to tell time in this mountain temple that never saw daylight, and the clock in Maru's bracelet didn't work down here either. For some reason, though, none of them seemed to mind this. Yes, they knew that they were in the domain of a psychopath who would have no problem in slitting their throats while they slept if it came to it, and yes, they knew it wasn't a good idea to just sit around in a place like this, but none of that mattered for as long as they all kept their conversation going.  
For once, what could have been hours now felt like mere minutes, the conversation progressing until it was all much more natural, despite Zyro still being curled up against the wall, crying, throughout the majority of it. While they momentarily forgot about Alcorin, none of them forgot about Zyro's recent panic attack, so most of their conversation was directed towards him. They all carefully made sure that it never indulged back into the agony and despair that the last 2 months had consisted of, and they always encouraged him to answer, which he would more often than not.  
They all passed back in forth the simplest of questions, like 'what are parent's names?', or 'do you like trains?', (courtesy of Ren that caused some of them to mentally face palm) or 'do you prefer books to movies?', and, even while they were currently sitting ducks in a monster's den, they all felt like just normal kids and adults and teenagers again. Not that their lives could ever really be considered 'normal' on a regular basis, but normal nonetheless.  
Before long, Madoka was able to find those matches in her backpack, some of them scattered loose among the bottom and making her have to pull out most of the things that were in there before she struck it and stood up to light the torch that stood almost just above her. By this time, Zyro had calmed down, although his shoulders still shook and he refused to look up. Whether it was from shame or the fear of seeing the closed in walls around him again, nobody could say for sure. Once Madoka had the torch lit, she pulled it off of the wall of where it had been mounted, and used it to light several other torches around them so to light up the area a bit.  
Kira turned off the Night Vision setting on his eye patch once things got bright enough, but Maru kept out her flashlight, just in case it was needed. Once the area was lit up enough, everyone knew that it was time for them to get moving, albeit sadly at the thought of having to venture off once more into the darkness that most of them had momentarily managed to free themselves from. Even so, none of them said anything, both for their own sake and for Zyro's.  
The ginger-ravenette had mostly calmed down, at least enough for Shinobu and Kira to pull the emotionally and now somewhat mentally damaged teen to his feet. Zyro seemed to do it willingly enough, but he still refused to look up despite having his eyes open now, and he clung to both of them with his hands.  
Shinobu welcomed it more than Kira did, though the Bahamoote Blader did not push him away. He just seemed surprised for the most part.

"Come on Zyro, we're gonna get going." Shinobu said softly to his best friend, "We can keep talking along the way."  
Shakily, Zyro nodded his head, but didn't dare look up. "Okay..." He said, his voice now hoarse from the previous screaming, sobbing, and crying that none of them were able to get out of their heads.  
So they did just as Shinobu had told the boy - they kept talking the whole way they walked through the stone corridors, Madoka taking it upon herself to stay more ahead and light more torches on their way along.  
This time, Zyro was far more willing to join in on the conversation, even as he refused to look up from the floor and still shook with his fear and apprehension that none of them were able to blame him for. All of them found it incredibly strange, however, that in these moments spent here, inside of a mountain temple that was the rightful domain of a crazed demi-god, was when they had learned more about Zyro - more about _each other_ \- than they had ever previously.  
A few of them even found it ironic, that a thing that could tear someone apart had managed to bring them closer to together, however slightly so.  
However long it had taken them to get out of the narrow corridors that surrounded them, they had no way of knowing, but they did know that they were probably just as relieved as Zyro was when they finally came to a large, open room, dark but with an adequate amount of natural light that came from a jagged hole in the high.  
It was pale, like that of the moon, but still bright enough to light the elaborately designed chamber.  
Although he had refused to look the whole way, choosing, albeit shamefully, to cling to both Kira and Shinobu instead, Zyro felt it more than saw it when they came into the far more open space, immediately feeling the pressuring walls around him cease and back away.

The boy let out an audible sigh of relief, his posture instantly relaxing in a way that made him look more exhausted than anything. His clutching fingers released their almost bone-crushing hold on the two other bladers on either side of him, and, finally, he looked up from his trance-like stare at the floor.  
None of them were surprised to find Zyro's face stained with tears, nor where they surprised that his eyes were bloodshot, a sight that was reasonable but no less unsettling to the rest of them. Maybe it was just the fact that none of them had ever seen Zyro like this.  
Zyro had also never _wanted_ them to see like this as long as he was able to help it, and he had tried so very hard back there not to panic, but it always got the best of him eventually. But, at the moment, that didn't matter.  
He was just relieved more than anything to be in a wider open space, able to see light that poured in through the deep hole in the ceiling which gave him solace in the fact that they weren't just in some place underground with no hope of seeing the light of day again. He was no longer trapped and confined by the suffocating walls and darkness of the corridors that had been closing around him, and for that he was grateful.  
But even with the wave of relief that washed over him, the previous terror and fear that had once overcome him came back to both mind and body, and at the mere memory of that overwhelming fear did Zyro feel his stomach lurch before retching onto the floor.

Kira had apparently seen the reaction coming a split moment before it happened, and had quickly moved to wrap both his arms around Zyro's waist and torso just in time to hold Zyro up before he doubled over and threw up onto the ground. Shinobu was there to help support the boy the moment after, though he himself, as well as a few of the others, had turned a little pale once that had happened.  
Zyro heaved for a few moments, but he did not vomit anymore than he just had, which a lot of them were grateful for - Maru had even taken to covering her eyes the moment it had occurred. All was silent between them for what seemed like forever before finally spoke in a choked and hoarse voice.

"S-sorry..." He apologized, his tone almost pathetic with how small and feeble it now was. At this uttered word, Madoka silently made her way over towards the Ifraid Blader, and gently placed a hand on his back. It was necessarily a maternal instinct thing, but it was something of the sort that she had adapted after having Maru under her wing for so many years.  
"Hey, don't apologize." The brunette said reassuringly, "It's not your fault, you can't help it.." Zyro didn't look up at her as he wiped away his tears and at his mouth with the back of his hand, and shook his head.  
"N-no..." He said shakily, "I'm sorry y-you had to see all of th-that... _Any_ o-of that.."  
Ren sent her friend a reassuring smile, waving her hand off to the side a bit. "H-hey, don't worry about it!" She said, "I really don't think any of us have the right to point fingers at this point."  
Zyro didn't respond to that, but still continued to look down, at the floor, though he was clearly not trying to look at the mess that he had left on the floor.  
Shinobu gave a small smile at Ren's enthusiasm on not blaming Zyro for acting and reacting the way he had, before he looked back to the raven with a solemn expression.  
"Zyro.." He began gently, taking his hand off of Zyro's shoulder where he had previously been holding him up (Kira himself now only having one hand on the Ifraid Blader's left shoulder), "Why didn't you tell us you were claustrophobic?"

Everyone fell silent at that question, mainly because they knew it was likely something that Zyro didn't enjoy speaking about. This was evident by how reluctant Zyro seemed to answer, and most of them expected that he might not after several moments of silence. None of them would blame him for that, though. However, they were all proven wrong when the ginger-ravenette finally did speak.  
"B-because..." He started, refusing to look up at anyone, "..W-what would y-you have thought of me?... I-it's just a s-stupid fear, that's all..." Of all of the things that any of them had expected to say, none of them had expected that.  
Zyro, caring what others thought about him? Caring about how people viewed him?  
"You think that we'd see you any differently if we knew?" Maru questioned, a concerned and somewhat hurt look on her face.  
Zyro didn't answer her right away.  
"W-wouldn't you?..." He asked shakily, bring his hand up again and wiping at his eyes again, the skin now raw from him doing so so frequently.  
At this question, Ren crossed her arms, a somewhat sour look on her face.  
"Zyro, I didn't think you could be that much of an idiot." The blonde stated bluntly, surprising the boy and causing him to actually look over at her. His tear-stained and still slightly frightened face was painful to look at, but Ren pushed that aside as she kept talking. "You're claustrophobic. So what?" She questioned, aiming to get her point across, "A lot of people are! I don't see why we should see you any differently because of it. Though it probably _would've_ be nice to know that beforehand, so that we could have calmed you down easier."  
Zyro looked at a little sheepish at that last comment, and Ren sent him with small smile.  
"Yeah, it's not that big of a deal to us." Kite agreed, "I have a phobia of wasps, myself."

"Who doesn't?" Maru questioned, shivering at the thought of those little black and yellow demons that dared look similar to bees.  
Zyro smiled a little at that.  
Madoka smiled as well, and looked at Zyro again. "See? You don't have to be sorry for anything, Zyro." The shop owner assured, "If anything, it's pretty normal, actually. None of us are here to judge each other, you can count on that. Okay?"  
Sniffling softly, Zyro wiped his eyes again one last time, before nodding with a shaky smile.  
"Okay.." He agreed.  
The rest of the group smiled, and even a small one was coaxed from Kira, who looked away slightly as to make sure no one saw it. Both Zyro and Shinobu noticed it from the multicolor-haired blader, but neither of them said anything.  
After all, no one was willing to disturb the brief moment of bittersweet peace that had finally come about them...

* * *

Both Takanosuke and Sakyo had not expected to hear a such a terrified scream as they were entering the temple within the mountain, and it had caught both of them off guard, stopping them in their tracks and causing both to look this way and that.  
The sound did not last long as it reverberated off the walls, quickly passing through the corridor they were heading down and then vanishing to other parts of the temple. As quick as it had come and gone, both of them were quickly able to recognize that voice, despite never hearing it so terrified, so scared, so fearful.  
"W-was that..." Takanosuke started, hesitating for a moment as he thought it over in his head, "Zyro?.."

"Sounded like it." Sakyo said almost in confirmation, "Perhaps that means they're here."

"Y-yeah, I guess.." Takanosuke agreed uneasily, "B-but, why would he be screaming like that? Do you think they're in trouble?"  
Sakyo didn't answer the boy right away, but continued gazing down the end of the corridor where both they and the scream had come from.  
"It's a definite possibility." He responded firmly, "But I doubt there may be anything we can do for them at the moment."

"What? Why?" Takanosuke asked, looking up at the elder blader beside him, a somewhat pleading and confused look on his face. Sakyo's red eyes met his own in their cold yet understanding nature.  
"Because." He stated simply, "It's unlikely we would be able to reach them in time. This place is big, almost like a maze. For all we know, it might not even _be_ him, considering what Alcorin is capable of. Chances are, we could get ourselves killed in the process."  
Takanosuke looked down towards the ground, a forlorn look on his face. He knew that Sakyo was right, even though he hated to admit it at the moment.  
Part of his instinct told him to go anyway, to try and find Zyro and the others if they were really here. But the more dominant part of his instinct told him to leave it and trust in Sakyo, as he had for a long time.  
Needless to say, that part of him won out.  
Sighing softly, the curly-haired blonde nodded. "Okay.." He said solemnly in agreement.  
Sakyo could see the inner struggle within his younger companion, but he didn't say anything. He placed one hand upon the others shoulder and urged him on in the direction that they had previously been heading, and they continued on.

Neither of them heard that scream - that terrified, panic-stricken scream - again after that, but neither of them were able to get it out of their heads. It almost seemed to follow them, even though it was long gone and now muffled over by the silence that was only broken by the flickering of the torches on the walls and their footsteps.  
The silence was unsettling in this place, but Takanosuke decided that he liked it more than the sound of that scream, the chill it had sent up his spine still making a lingering tingle that was anything but comfortable.  
But they didn't hear anything further after that, so they both simply left it, and headed onward.  
Deeper and deeper into the darkness of the temple, and further and further towards damnation.


	33. Chapter 32 - (Dis)Comforting Words

Chapter 32 - (Dis)Comforting Words

* * *

One moment, Gingka had been staring into darkness, a darkness made of laughter and insanity that was white as snow and redder than blood, a darkness that had a face and a body that was his own and yet wasn't in both senses.  
But then something had rang in his ears, reverberated around him, a sound full of fear and torment, but consisting of the purest kind of life. The next thing he knew, he was gasping in a breath, and he opened his eyes - not to the abyssal darkness that he had been sentenced too, but to a large room, dark but still illuminated in its own light that shone without a source. A room... A _real_ room, or so he presumed. Not just an endless void of darkness, where he was left kneeling, chained to a floor ( _no.. ceiling... wall... it could've been_ anything _..._ ) that he couldn't see, that didn't _exist_.  
But this... This he could see. It existed... And he had seen it before, while in the darkest recesses of his mind, when he had closed his eyes and saw the briefest glimpses of the outside world.  
The outside world... This was the outside.

He was outside.

Not _outside_ , really, since he was in a room, and you weren't outside if you were inside of something, but for him _this_ was outside.  
He had gotten out... He had been let go of... But he seriously doubted that it had done so willingly, or maybe it had not even done so at all.  
Something had pulled him back... Something that he recognized so dearly so... It took a moment before Gingka realized that he was forgetting to breathe, and he exhaled gratefully.  
He took a moment, just sitting there, his head now leaning back against the back of the stone chair he was sitting in, gazing around wearily at his surroundings that were all made of stone. He didn't care that it was a boring room, that there was nothing but stone decorating the walls, inscriptions and elaborate but weathered pictures carved in, he just cared that there was _something_ other than darkness.  
This was _something_ , compared to the _nothing_ he had been forcefully condemned too. He took a moment taking that thought in before he finally made willed himself to look away from the ceiling, suddenly feeling quite awkward and out of place in his own body. Then again, his body hadn't moved out here in the physical world for weeks now, so it could only be natural that he would feel that way now that he had woken up - and so suddenly as well.  
Slowly, the redhead looked down more towards the floor of the room, which really wasn't that interesting either of since when did he care about that? It was _outside_ , wasn't it? That was good enough. This was the view that he had always had while he was stuck within his head, the view that he had seen whenever he managed to close his eyes and focus enough without that _thing_ ( _Thing?... No, him.. Right?_ ) coming to disturb him, only this time it was much clearer. He could feel it now, rather than just see it. But it wasn't anything knew to Gingka to see it, for he had seen it many times before.  
So maybe that was why he wasn't all the most surprised to see that the entirety of his left arm was now white. Although he wasn't that surprised, it still caused a small hitch in his breath ( _white skin, white hair, his face_ ), and he looked away, though he knew that there was no way to escape it.  
He guessed that was also why his left arm and the left side of his face felt so weird, so exposed, so... Gingka couldn't think of words of the moment. What he figured he _should_ be thinking about was how to get out of this place.  
He knew where he was, why he was here, but he didn't know how to get out. He should probably work on that. Only thing was, he wasn't exactly able to feel his legs all to well. Gingka didn't know much too much about comas, except for the fact that you were left as nothing but a vegetable until you woke up - _if_ you woke up that was - but he did know that waking up from such a state was able to cause some major trauma to the body and to the mind.  
Again, his body hadn't even moved for the last 3 weeks - it had only been three weeks, right?

That's what it said, 3 weeks, 3 weeks... Gingka decided to take his chances either way.  
The redhead grunted softly as he moved his arms, his limbs feeling stiff and weak, almost screaming at him to stop moving and just sit there as he had been, but he managed to push himself away from the back of the chair and towards the edge of the seat anyways. He breathed heavily for a moment, his vision blurring slightly at the sudden exertion that his body wasn't used to after so long, but that soon passed enough for him to put both hands on the left arm of the stone chair, and carefully push himself up on shaking legs.  
He had expected that, after being so weak from before he had fallen into his comatose sleep, and after being completely immobile for 3 weeks in a vegetative state, his legs wouldn't be able to support him, not to mention the fact that he could barely feel them. He was right. The moment he tried to stand on his own, he almost immediately fell over onto the ground, though was able to catch himself quickly enough so that he didn't hit his head or anything.  
Either way, everything still hurt.

"Ow..." He muttered softly, and slowly pulled himself up into a bit of an awkward sitting position.  
Obviously, he wasn't going to really get anywhere to fast.  
The redhead tried again, only for it to, predictably, fail miserably, and then even did his best to try crawling, but that was futile as well. He was too weak for this... He couldn't move his legs, and he _hated_ that thought after being nothing but immobile inside of his own head for so long.  
Either way, he had nothing to do but sit there, barely even a few meters away from the stone chair he had originally be sitting upon for at least a week or so, on legs that he barely had feeling in and somewhat propped up both of his hands, one his normal fair skin, the other whiter than the snow that he would always see during the long winters of Koma.  
Even so, he knew that someone was watching him.  
It was a feeling that he had come to recognize, the feeling of eyes ( _red, his own but not his own_ ) staring into the back of his head, staring into _him_ , coming back like a hated old friend. He couldn't see this one, couldn't hear him, but he knew who was there.  
He supposed it was a twin thing.

"Alcorin?..." Gingka called out in a hoarse voice, coughing slightly afterwards and hearing that accursed name echo through the room. He waited several moments, but he received no answer but the echo that bounced off the walls before soon fading into silence again.  
He knew what the other was waiting for, what he wanted.  
He was loathe to admit it to even himself the fact that lay in a simple word, but what choice was he given?  
Gingka sat in the silence for a moment longer, a troubled expression on his face as he looked towards the ground, his eyebrows furrowed softly, before he willed himself to speak the word he never thought he'd ever say to anyone, let alone someone like _him_.  
"Brother?..." He called out once more, his voice hesitant as he uttered that word in place of the other's name.  
He didn't have to wait long before he got an answer.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted you to call me that." Said a calm, solemn voice that never failed to be kissed by that manipulative trace of power that could bend others to its will from in front of him, and Gingka immediately looked upward to meet that accursed face.  
And Alcorin stood there. Several meters away, shrouded in his white robes that both dragged behind him and fluttered around his ankles.  
Gingka had expected that, since he had seen his younger brother before while he was catatonic, kneeling in front of him and undoubtedly whispering uncanny words in his ear that the other probably didn't see the problem in.  
What he didn't expect though, was the calm, somber expression on his face. There was no smile, no twisted light in those eyes that reflected none. He looked almost human, for a person that wasn't entirely so.  
Then again, Gingka knew that he shouldn't be saying such things about the other - after all, they were the same.

"That really does mean the world to me." The younger continued, the ghost of what was almost a small smile on his face, "Even though I know you don't mean it when you say it."  
Gingka said nothing, simply looking at the albino with nearly expressionless eyes. Gingka looked at that face for several moments, eyes roaming across every feature and detail, even though there wasn't much to see but stark white and crimson red.

But still, that face... He knew that face...

The silence was there again for a moment before Alcorin went on.  
"I really didn't expect to wake up so soon." The younger commented, "I expected you to be sleeping for quite awhile yet... But then again-" A somewhat bitter look flashed in his eyes, and he briefly looked away from his older brother, "-your friends really are more trouble than they're worth."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Gingka responded almost mockingly, and finally realized where he recognized that sound that he had heard before. A scream, coming from a voice that he had never heard filled with such fear. "But you can't always have your way like that.." The redhead continued, getting a brief chuckle from the other.  
"I suppose that's true." Alcorin said, "But I can sure as hell try, can't I?"  
More silence. It was strange, since Gingka had thought Alcorin would be more chatty than this, as he often seemed to be.  
It was almost... Awkward.  
It took a few moments before Gingka decided to speak.  
"I really don't understand you.." Gingka said with a soft sigh.  
"I don't expect you too." Alcorin responded.  
"No." Gingka replied, shaking his head, "When I say that, I don't mean like any of the other bad guys I've fought over the years... I don't understand you, because why would you _do_ all of this for me?... Why am I so important?"  
Alcorin said nothing for a few moments before he answered.  
"Well you're my brother, aren't you?" He questioned rhetorically.  
"We've never even met before now..." Gingka pointed out.  
"Maybe not, but siblings are siblings." Alcorin said somberly, "At least _I_ recognized you, unlike our father."  
Gingka looked up towards the younger. "Why would Nemesis have recognized me at all?" He asked, "He made us, but I seriously doubt he knew what we looked like."

"That's where he failed." Alcorin said bitterly once more, "He was much happier trying to destroy this world than find the only children he would ever really have. I never did care about father dearest's ambitions, but he could have at least _tired_ to come through on his children's behalf... Speaking of which..." Alcorin's bitter expression faded once more, replaced by a calm type of curiosity that was strange to see on a face who had laughed and rejoiced in the pain of others, "How exactly did you come to know of that? You were pretty out of it for about a month, and you never knew anything prior to my arrival in Metal Bey City. So how is it that you suddenly know, dear brother?.."  
Gingka almost cringed at those two words, but prevented himself from doing so. Instead, he looked up towards the albino, a somewhat defiant look on his face.  
"Let's just say I had an old friend's help on that one.." He said.  
Of course, Ryuga had been the one to tell him.  
He had told him everything about Alcorin and about what his father had done all those years ago, everything that needed to be said in those few moments between life and death where Gingka had known peace once more. Despite that accursed knowledge he'd be given, Gingka had decided that it was nice to see Ryuga again.  
At least he now knew where he had been all these years.

"Of course..." Alcorin replied, his tone somewhat bitter again, "You always seem to have friends somewhere that will come looking for you... People that always want to see you safe, people you rely on..." The younger looked away, glowering at something off to the side, "How pathetic..."

"It's not pathetic." Gingka said in response, "They're my friends. I know I can count on them just like they can count on me, that's what forms our bonds... Something tells me that you never had anyone to count on..."  
Crimson eyes looked at him again, an expressionless gaze that didn't say much.  
"What? Are you taking pity on me, dear brother?..." Alcorin asked, and he was silent again before speaking, "I never _could_ rely on anyone. Especially not that disgusting _child_ who let everything control him when it _should_ have been the other way around... I got tired of him. So I threw him aside." That accursed smile, sweetness corrupted by a sadistic malice, finally showed itself on his face, "It really wasn't that hard to do so.. After all, _I_ was the one who actually understand what we were.."  
That smiled faded, and a frown took its place. Alcorin was silent for a moment before speaking again.  
"You were right, actually, about what you said earlier..." He continued, "You _don't_ understand me, just like how I barely understand you. You had a loving 'father'... _Always_ surrounded by people who love you, because who couldn't love a person like you? You had friends, family... How _perfect_ it must have been, right?"  
Gingka just looked at him, and didn't answer. A silent look of near contempt on his face.  
Alcorin saw this, but seemed to pay it no mind.

"Not me, though." He said with a small smile, though it was a bitter one, "No, I was treated like a parasite. Because why should the spawn of a God of Death and War be treated any other way?"  
Gingka saw the somewhat accusing look in those eyes that he knew at two points in life had mirrored his own, and he looked down at the ground. "However, he was the one who got the worst of it.. I was just stuck in his pathetic little mind, just watching. It really was quite amusing."

"How can you say that about _yourself_?" Gingka asked, confused.  
"He _is not_ me." Alcorin said firmly, his expression now more angry than anything. It was a calm type of anger, a frightening mask that hid a storm.  
" _I'm_ everything that came before him, and I'm everything he _couldn't_ be!" Alcorin stated, crimson eyes glowing dangerously, " _I_ knew what we were, and _I_ knew what we were capable of. He wouldn't have been able to do _anything_ about that old man if it hadn't been for _me_. Oh yes... Dear _sweet_ uncle.." His voice became scornful, that dark undertone of unspeakable power able to be heard, "Threw him in a closet, locked him in his room, restrained him _day and night_ , and yet that kid still _loved_ him because of the moments when he was good and he was treated like a _son_. He was practically a _pet_ , letting himself be controlled by everything around him like some puppet!"  
Alcorin fell silent for a moment, breathing heavily from his rant. His expression quickly calmed, as did he, and that faint, bitter expression was the only thing that remained.  
Gingka looked upon him with near pity.  
He hated that.

"I was born with other powers than just being able to control things, you know." The younger stated calmly, "I was also born with the power to give life... I never understood it myself, I'll admit. I didn't have any need to, really. Perhaps that's why that pathetic child was so weak..." Alcorin looked away for a moment, as if he were listening to something, before looking back again, "But I don't have that power anymore. That was gotten rid of when we were six."  
Gingka looked somewhat dazed and confused as he tried to make sense of everything that Alcorin was talking about. He had a feeling of dread nestled in the pit of his stomach, the leering feeling that there was something more to this talk, because how couldn't there be?  
He was willing to bet that some part of him ( _white skin, white hair, red eyes, identical..._ ) already knew.  
Alcorin went on. "I may be speaking for that pathetic child, but being locked in a closet against your will when your just barely out of toddler years is pretty damn traumatizing. I think we both knew each other at that point... We _both_ wanted out. Out of that closet, out of that house, out of that _life_.. We wanted _so_ much to be out of there that we didn't care what happened... And, by chance, something else was born from that."  
Gingka's breath hitched softly, but Alcorin didn't seem to hear it.  
"It's not a very good idea to trust a six year old with creating a life form, since how could they control it?... I didn't even know what it was until just last month.. And I realized that we made something that we sent those powers with, _someone_ that is the literal embodiment of life itself..." Alcorin narrowed his red eyes, and he stared into Gingka's own, "And I think you know who I'm talking about."

Gingka was reluctant to answer.

But he knew, and he knew that there was no way in denying it. The redhead looked at the other, a forlorn yet understanding look in his eyes.

Maybe it really was a twin thing.

"Zyro." He stated more than said.

"Yes." Alcorin said somberly, "Surprisingly, yes, but I do suppose that explains why he seems to be such a force of nature, and... A few _other_ things.."

Gingka didn't know what to do. He knew it was true though, because, on some level, they, as twins, understood each other. As much as hated admitting it...  
Zyro... Zyro was here, along with the others, he knew that now, but... Dear god, how would they... How would _he_ handle...  
Gingka didn't notice the sound of footsteps until they were just a few feet away, and looked up from the ground (that he hadn't even realized he had come to be looking at) just in time to see his younger brother kneel down in front of him on his knees so that they were almost eye level with each other.  
Gingka started to back away, but he stopped himself when he realized that that would do nothing.  
"I know what you're probably thinking..." Alcorin stated, "You're thinking about how you could ever tell dear little Zyro something like that... How you would explain anything, even _yourself_ to any of them..." Gingka averted his brother's eyes, though he knew that the other was right, "Well don't fret, dear brother..." Gingka really did flinch this time when he felt a hand, skin as smooth as glass, brush his left cheek, where he knew the skin was more than likely identical, "You won't have to explain anything once I'm done with them."  
At these words, Gingka's eyes immediately shot up to the other.  
"Don't you dare hurt them!" He demanded, and almost immediately felt a strange tingling sensation in both of his eyes. He raised his right hand to one of them and willed the feeling to go away.  
"I think it's a little late for that, dear brother." Alcorin said smugly, slowly retracting his hand, "I've already broken them down as much as I can manage before this point. And now, since they clearly aren't going to back off, I'm just going to kill them."

"Don't you dare!" Gingka shouted firmly, now trying to ignore the uncomfortable sensation in his eyes, "It's me you want, isn't it?! Take me, and we'll go somewhere else where they aren't! You said it yourself that you don't care about them, didn't you?"  
Alcorin looked at him calmly, almost apologetically, but Gingka could swear he imagined that.  
"That _would_ be more logical..." The albino admitted, "But you know as well as I do that they'd just follow me until they got you back."  
To this, Gingka said nothing.  
He knew that was true. He knew his friends, and he knew that they were stubborn as all hell (not to mention Madoka by herself). Even if Alcorin ran, they would chase the psychopath as long as he had him.

"You're sick, you know that?..." Was all the redhead as able to say, his body tense, anger coursing through him at the the thought of...  
"Oh, I know, a lot of people have said about me." Said Alcorin nonchalantly, "But you really _aren't_ the person for making such accusations after what _you've_ done."  
Gingka's eyebrows furrowed for a moment, confused.

What was he talking about?

The redhead looked up at the albino again, confused anger ever present  
. Alcorin saw his confusion and chuckled softly, "I'm not surprised you don't know... But I guess you would be one who would want to forget. You know..." Gingka froze entirely as Alcorin leaned forward to whisper in his ear, white skin, white hair, red eyes flashing before his eyes all over again.  
However, he was more struck by Alcorin's following words that it practically threw his trauma aside.

" **The ones where you killed your own father?** "

For maybe the first time, that voice lined with power unspeakable got through to him, and all of those memories that he had never known he had came rushing back to him in flashes of red eyes, broken glass, accursed laughter, and a terrified expression that he had never wanted to see directed towards him...

Not from him...

Not from Ryo...

Gingka was then left immobile, staring at the ground as everything flashed before his eyes, and loathing how everything suddenly made sense.  
No wonder he wasn't able to remember anything since he had seen his father died... Why everything had seemed like a dream... Because it had been.  
And he had shut the rest of it out.  
He didn't hear whatever it was that Alcorin said next, for his ears went deaf to the world, and he went more numb than he already was...  
And then he remembered that thing's words...

 _"... And you_ _ **did**_ _let me out..._ _ **Twice**_ _..."_

When he felt Alcorin's hands on him again, Gingka gave no resistance...

* * *

It seemed that no matter which way they went, Takanosuke and Sakyo kept seeming to wind up at some dead end eventually. They had come across one room, a large chamber that had appeared to previously had been living quarters, but were now broken down and full of dirt and insects after centuries of neglect, but that had been it.  
Apparently this place _was_ a kind of maze, although most of the dead ends they had come to were formed because parts of the temple had already caved in. Most of it still seemed to be standing, though, so that was a good thing. Now all they needed to do was actually find their way through it.

"How big is this place, exactly?" Takanosuke questioned, looking at the walls around the two of them as they walked down yet another corridor, "I know we're in a mountain, but this place is really big even for that..."

"I'm not sure." Sakyo said simply, staring forward into the darkness illuminated by the orange glow of the torches, "There has to be a way through, though. It's highly unlikely that the front entrance would lead to nothing but dead ends."

"Yeah, I guess..." Takanosuke said in a way that said he wasn't quite convinced, "But this place has been abandoned for a long time, so..." Sakyo got what Takanosuke meant even though he didn't finish his sentence, and he knew that that was very true.  
Chances were, all paths leading from the front entrance were entirely blocked off from the rest of the temple, even if most of it was still quite sturdy and supported by the mountain itself. Considering that Alcorin was a demi-god, he would have no problem getting around, but others would, which would make it all the more fortunate for him. The two of them continued on, however, resolute in finding a way deeper into the mountain and further towards their goal.  
The dead ends had to stop eventually, right?  
The two of them kept walking for quite a while (even though they had no idea how long 'a while' was) before they both heard a sound echoing off the stone walls of the corridor they were currently in. Both of them stopped in their tracks upon hearing it, Sakyo moving his arm instinctively in front of Takanosuke in a precautionary (... _protective_...) manner.  
They both stood a moment, silent, and listened. As bladers, they both recognized the sound immediately the sound as that of a spinning top, or at least something similar to that.

"Where's that coming from?..." Takanosuke asked quietly, glancing up at Sakyo worried before looking back down the hall. Sakyo didn't answer, but that was expected.  
Silently, the two of them crept down the corridor, both of them listening closely as the faint sound grew closer the farther they went. It wasn't long before the two of them saw it - a single Bey, spinning silently in the center of the floor, alone and with no blader nearby to command it.  
But they knew better than that, because they were able to recognize the Bey that spun there.

Holy Bellerophon, as Alcorin had so politely introduced them.

Both bladers almost immediately fell on the defensive, both suddenly getting ready to pull out their launchers should they have to, and they had no doubts that they would.  
However, they were proven wrong once Bellerophon zipped off to the side and down another corridor connected to the one they were already in, leaving both bladers somewhat confused.  
The two of them silently walked over to the hallway, both of them looking down into the torch lit darkness, and saw the Bey again.  
Once more, it just stood there, spinning - waiting.  
At the same time that they realized the Bey wanted them to follow it, Takanosuke felt like he was going to throw up from the sudden feeling of dread that dropped into his stomach.  
The blonde actually doubled over, making a muffled gagging sound. Sakyo was immediately there, and held the Griffin Blader up with one arm around his torso, and the other hand on the boy's shoulder. The curly-haired boy instinctively reached out and gripped Sakyo's trench-coat, breathing shallowly as he stared at the floor, that sickening feeling of nausea creeping up from his stomach and willing it's way to his esophagus.  
His vision blurred again and without warning, black spots clouding his sight just as they had so many times before and forcing him to close his eyes.

"Takanosuke?" He heard Sakyo say questionably, that hint of concern that only he was able to hear lingering in that naturally chill voice.

Why, why was this happening now?

Why _now_ , why here?...

Some part of him felt like he might know why, an instinctive part, one that he couldn't see.  
The rest of him didn't care, and just wanted all of this - the nausea, the headaches, the pain, the blurry vision - to stop.  
Eventually, it did.  
The blonde's vision cleared again, and the nausea went away, even though he still felt uneasy. Sakyo helped him stand up properly again, and made sure that he was able to stand by himself before pulling away.  
"Thanks..." The blonde muttered softly, rubbing the side of his head for a moment as his cerulean eyes looked down the corridor again.

Bellerophon was still there, waiting.

Takanosuke did not feel good about this - not at all.  
Of course, he doubted that Sakyo did either, but... The Griffin Blader felt a hand on his shoulder, gentle but firm, and looked up towards the Dragoon Blader that stood beside him. Sakyo looked at him with that cold gaze that was graced dimly with concern, and Takanosuke knew what it was he was asking.  
He wanted to say yes, or no, or whichever answer meant turn back or go some other way, but he knew that there was no point in that.  
If they were to turn back, then, chances were, all of this would end up meaning next to nothing. But if they went a different way, then... Would they still be able to find other ways through?  
Perhaps, but perhaps not.  
Eventually, Takanosuke decided against all other ideas despite the dread that he felt, and Sakyo got the message.

Cautiously, both of them walked down the corridor where Bellerophon lay waiting, and continued to follow the Bey that wanted to be followed down the corridor, and then down another. The whole time, both of them made sure to be ready for sudden attacks that could come their way.  
None came, however.  
Of course, Bellerophon wasn't an Attack type Bey, and couldn't even actually attack at all, but they had seen for themselves that it was still as dangerous as the man who had possession of it.  
It just lead them on and on through the halls, until they finally came to the second open chamber that they had managed to come across.  
Strangely enough, this room actually seemed to be lit, since it was brighter than anywhere else they had been.  
It looked almost like the indoor version of a courtyard, with pillars lining the sides and supporting the upper balcony that wound all the way around. There were stairs that lead up to the upper floor on the sides of the center of the room, and some at the very back of it - those ones were half crumbled, however, and could probably only be used if one used some fair caution when going up through the middle. From what they could see, there were even a few more doorways that lead off from the chamber, 3 on the upper floor and one to the right side of the bottom floor. Looking up, both Takanosuke and Sakyo saw that the roof was just as elaborately designed, with beams carved out of the rock all leading into the center, where a bright mass of glow stone protruded and did an excellent job of lighting the whole room. Sakyo looked down at the floor, directly below the glow stone that was in the center of the ceiling, and saw what looked to be a circle with several patterns and engravings on it that he was unable to make sense of.  
In the center, Bellerophon spun silently.  
"Someone really outdid themselves with this place, it's kind of nice..." Takanosuke said as an offhand comment, gazing around in awe at the chamber that he had never expected to be so... Nice looking.  
It was actually sort of pretty for a place that was dedicated to Nemesis.

"I'm _so_ glad you think so." Said a voice that rang with an undertone of possessive power, and immediately both Sakyo and Takanosuke warped out of their somewhat amazed trances to look at the far side of the room.  
And there, as expected, stood Alcorin.

Or at least they thought so, since he looked... Different, if the sudden albinism was anything to go by.

"You know, you are all really starting to get on my nerves." Alcorin said with smile and a tilt of his head at the two of them, " _You two_ especially.. I've tried to get all of you to quit more than once, you know... With you two, I didn't actually think I'd have to try, so I just left you alone... And looks like it actually paid off better than I expected."  
Neither of the two found that settling, since, as they expected, Alcorin had wanted them to find this place.  
Now that he had them, though, what was it that he planned to do with them?  
Alcorin continued to look them both over for several moments, as though studying them, a look of curiosity on his face that did not fit his malicious nature. After a moment, the psychopath spoke again.  
"You know, I kept wondering how exactly I was going to deal with all of you for _such_ a long time." Alcorin stated, almost thoughtfully, "I kept changing my mind here and there, and I thought at first that it would be good enough take all you had and crush you into tiny pieces, _but_... I just decided take the easier route, since none of you really seem when to quit."  
Still, Sakyo and Takanosuke said nothing, and the red-and-white-haired blader could see that the blonde was visibly shaking beside him.  
"Surely both of you are smart enough to know what that entails," Alcorin went on, "So..." There was a moment where Alcorin opened his eyes, and then opened them again, already red irises glowing brightly in all of their demonic heritage, " **Shall we?** "

Bellerophon's face bolt pulsated and glowed a royal blue, emanating its power throughout the room from simply where it stood in the center.  
Both Takanosuke and Sakyo immediately sprang into action, both of them pulling out their Beys and launchers and connecting the two pieces in single fluid motions, both ready to launch and strike within an instant.  
Alcorin clearly wanted a fight - as much as it probably wasn't a good idea to comply, they didn't seem to have much choice if the hollow howls of the wolves that entered through several of the doorways, including the one behind them, had anything to say about it.  
Sakyo saw Takanosuke shaking, not terribly, but definitely noticeably, and for a moment he really did think the boy might collapse again. Now wasn't the time, of course, and he knew that Takanosuke knew that as well, but whether or not he would be able to help it clearly wasn't up to the blonde.  
Sakyo never had been one to express any form of compassion or affection through words - he had never really known _how_ too - but, maybe, this was the one time that he would make an exception, if he was really able too.  
"It's okay..." The Dragoon blader said quietly, and, though his eyes were trained on Alcorin and Bellerophon, Takanosuke knew where Sakyo's attention was focused, ".. I'm not letting anything happen to you... It'll be fine..."  
Gradually, Sakyo saw that Takanosuke's shivering died down a bit, even though it wasn't gone completely.  
That was reasonable though, and Sakyo was simply glad that he was able to get the other to calm down. Whether or not it would matter, he might never know.  
The two of them both managed to fixate their attention back to Alcorin, who stood there, smiling eerily, waiting with patience that no one short of a god could have.

In one split second the battle began, the two bladers - Synchro partners, friends - launched their own Beys towards the one that spun in the middle of the floor, both of them truly initiating what could be a last battle with the immortal cry that both of them had always known since they were infants, since their childhoods, the cry they had grown up with at different times but in the same way.  
If this was to be the last battle they saw together, against a psychopath who wanted nothing more than to make sure it was, then so be it.


	34. Chapter 33 - No More Games

Chapter 33 - No More Games

* * *

Before long, Zyro and the others had managed to continue on through the corridors of the temple, making their way through the torch lit halls that - in their rather confining space - still had Zyro fidgeting a bit, but nothing close to what had happened earlier.  
From the point that they had left the chamber they had originally been in, things were uncharacteristically quiet and calm around them, with nothing but the crackling of the torches and their own footsteps and small chatter to be heard. That was enough to set all of them on edge, having them turning corners and walking down corridors cautiously and with little room to feel secure.  
They all knew from experience that whenever there was something that involved Alcorin, 'quiet' and 'calm' did not fit in to any sentence they could use as a description. Either he had forgotten about them (which was highly unlikely), or he was simply laying in wait for the proper moment (which was very likely).  
So they all stayed on their toes, the only talk among them being the talk of the situation or other things that could make it so that there wasn't just total silence. Total silence was unsettling, as they had all come to mentally decide. They had no idea how long they went on for with nothing to come about, making their way down corridors and short hallways and chambers (which seemed to become more elaborate with each one they passed through, fancier, well and artistically built) with nothing to stop them.  
Something just wasn't right... Couldn't be right.

"So, in case any of us really care at the moment..." Ren began quietly, though her voice echoed off the walls, "I've counted about 6 rooms, and a bunch of hallways. With _nothing_ happening."

"Well, it _could_ be worse..." Kira pointed out, "We could've had our heads on stakes by now."

"Can we not talk about any dismemberment or mutilation?" Maru asked flatly. Kira said nothing to that.  
"Let's just keep an eye out..." Madoka said, though she knew that she didn't have too, "Alcorin's definitely not up to anything good."

"When is he ever?" Shinobu questioned rhetorically. None of them had to answer that. Anything that remotely involved the psychopath was never good, and it was without a doubt that he had something in store for them.  
If he planned on keeping Gingka (and chances are that he did), then nothing good was coming their way. Whenever it came. And that was a very big 'whenever'. It wasn't too much longer after that that Zyro could swear that he heard something. He stopped for a moment in the middle of the hallway, and he glanced around, trying not to pay any mind to how small the walls seemed around him. He didn't know where it had come from, or exactly what it was, but he swore he had heard something. Then again, that probably wasn't a good thing.  
Considering all they had seen and been through, 'thinking they heard something' was probably enough to be worried.  
There was no telling what lurked within these walls.

"Zyro, you okay?" He heard Shinobu ask, and looked towards the rest of the group that had stopped just a couple meters away.  
"Oh, uh, yeah..." The raven said, "I just thought I heard something."

"Well, that's probably not good." Madoka speculated.  
"Nothing would be in this place..." Ren muttered, "Join the huddle, Zyro, it's probably safer." Zyro half-chuckled at that, and quickly made his way back up with the rest of the group. With that, they continued on, though this time was a bit more less conversation than there previously was as they all made sure to stay on their toes.  
Zyro still wasn't sure about what he had heard, or _if_ he had heard anything. There were a lot of things he wasn't sure of in this place - mainly the two pulls that he kept feeling, one weaker than the other.  
He was sure that he knew where those came from, and he could take a pretty good guess, but it was a matter of which was coming from who that really made him wonder...

* * *

"Let it rip!" Both Takanosuke and Sakyo shouted in unison as what could be a final war cry, both unleashing their Beys at the same time with a determination that was almost visible.  
Dragoon and Griffin heard the cries of their bladers, and both face bolts pulsated and glowed in their respective auras as soon as they landed soundly on the ground, not far from Bellerophon.  
Both Beys stood side by side, just as Sakyo and Takanosuke did, willing to oblige to every command in a battle that could be their last.  
From their last battle, both bladers knew that there was no use in trying to urge Bellerophon to attack, both because it was a Defense type (and strong at that) and that they knew from experience that it would wait for them to attack first.  
Luckily, though, they knew some of its tricks this time. Both of the glared across the battlefield at Alcorin, who simply stood there, waiting as patiently as his Bey, with that small smile on his face that most commonly sent chills down one's spine.  
It was about time that they wiped that smile off of that stark white face - for real this time.

"Dragoon!"

"Griffin!"

Both Beys heard those cries, and immediately sprang into action, both zooming off to either side (Griffin to the right, Dragoon to the left) and quickly curving back in to supposedly ram into the black, silver, and dark blue Bey that spun in the middle of the floor.  
Both Takanosuke and Sakyo knew that it may have been a somewhat predictable move, but they knew that this way they may be able to catch Alcorin off guard - typically, Bellerophon would more than likely do one of two things, and they could only try and be prepared for whatever it did.  
Alcorin simply gave a small smile, and lifted one booted foot to tap the tip of it on the stone floor just behind him, which made a resounding echo.  
Bellerophon heard the command, and, just before Dragoon and Griffin came in contact with it, it quickly evaded the attacks that were coming at it - or so it had appeared. Both bladers on the other side of the field had expected something of the sort, and Sakyo had managed to hear that top of boot against stone just in time to curve out of the way of hitting Griffin, like Alcorin had undoubtedly wanted, and instead rushed into Bellerophon, where both Beys stood almost stationary, battling for dominance, before both were knocked back several feet.  
Griffin curved back around from where it had been, and joined Dragoon once more as it landed softly on the ground, only seeming to wobble for a moment before regaining perfect balance.  
Alcorin seemed to waste no time in throwing his hand out in a graceful movement, that smile on his face making all things unreadable.

"Bellerophon!" The albino called out, and the Bey heard the call, immediately taking off straight towards both Griffin and Dragoon with motives that were unknown, but could very easily be guessed.  
Bellerophon couldn't attack after all, it wasn't built for that.

"Dragoon!" "Griffin!" Both Beys raced off towards the other in turn, all headed for a single clash that would never come. Takanosuke and Sakyo realized this once they saw Bellerophon's face bolt pulsate and glow a bright blue, followed by a shifting of its top before a large ring of energy was released.  
Both bladers tried to pull their Beys back, but weren't quick enough as the bright ring of royal blue forced both Beys back several meters, and even made both bladers stagger slightly from the force that was given off. Both of them managed to stay on their feet, however.  
They didn't remember that being _that_ powerful...  
Maybe things changed, in a place like this.  
Alcorin looked at them for a moment, an almost thoughtful look on his face.

He tilted his head to the side in an almost nonchalant way, and said, "You know, I really don't even see _why_ you too set out here in the first place... You could have just left everything be the way it was, like you were _going_ to." Both Takanosuke and Sakyo commanded their Beys forward, and Alcorin took his left boot and tapped the ground just in front of him, "But somehow you managed to wind yourselves up _here_.."

All three Beys clashed, though not all head on - Dragoon, just before impact, veered quickly off to the left and past Holy Bellerophon, only to come back around and slam into the back while Griffin rushed it from the front.  
Alcorin simply flicked a couple of his fingers off to the side, and the hold that the two Beys had on the former companion of Pegasus (a companionship long since forgotten through the passage of time) lasted for only a few moments before Bellerophon used it's shielded edges to quickly slip through their grasp and off to the side. This caused Griffin and Dragoon to ram into each other only briefly, and Griffin teetered only slightly from the force before retaining it's balance. Takanosuke left out a small breath of relief at that.

"You could have just left it, you know." Alcorin said from across the field, drawing both Bladers's attention, "You were going to decide not to care... You refused their offer to come with you, and yet, even after, you _still_ decided to chase after me anyway, just like them..." Alcorin then frowned, a stoically curious look on his face, "Why is that, I wonder?"  
Neither bladers were set on answering him, so they both stayed silent. Alcorin was simply trying to get to them, trying to get under their skin, just like he always did with everyone with that accursed voice of his.  
There was no meaning to those words, just trying to rile them up.  
They couldn't let that happen.

"Griffin!"

"Dragoon!"

Both Beys immediately complied, and went rushing after Bellerophon again, both bladers knowing that it would be best to end this before anything _really_ bad happened.  
But of course, Alcorin just smiled again.  
"You're right." He said with a smile and a mock sigh, "This _is_ getting old... Bellerophon!" As expected, Bellerophon heard its master's call, and stood its ground against Dragoon and Griffin as they came ever nearer.  
Both Takanosuke and Sakyo narrowed their eyes, preparing themselves for whatever it was that Alcorin would unleash upon them - in their guts, a simple intuition, they felt they knew what was coming.  
Alcorin just chuckled at this, his voice echoing along the walls like some cursed whisper, before he placed his feet perfectly together, lowered his head in the slightest, and threw out both of his hands in front of him.

"Special Move! Silent Scream!..."

And, just as before, a high-pitched scream - which caused Takanosuke to flinch a bit - echoed out from Bellerophon as the face bolt pulsated and glowed in its aura of royal blue, followed by the symbols on the Warrior Wheel that created a ring around the rim of where the Warrior and Elemental Wheels met. It then made another high-pitched noise - one that _shouldn't_ be possible for Beys to make, but who were they to say anything about Bellerophon? - as the ring shot of from around the silver, black, and dark blue Bey, creating the same walls they had once seen as it went that would trap both Griffin and Dragoon in its clutches - just like before.  
Only this time, the ring didn't stop there, and Sakyo may have noticed this before Takanosuke did.  
It was a split moment decision, one that he himself made not have made consciously, and he found himself quickly moving to the younger blader beside him, placing a hand on his middle, and quickly pushing him back by several feet - just in time to get him out of the way of the wall of light that quickly separated them.  
Takanosuke didn't expect Sakyo's sudden action, and was therefore very easily pushed backwards and away from the imprisonment that now held Sakyo in check.  
It only took a moment for Takanosuke to recover from being being pushed backwards, and his breath almost immediately caught in his throat once he saw the wall of light and energy - this time 6 feet tall - cutting him off from Sakyo.

"S-Sakyo?" The blonde questioned, confusion wracking his brain as he quickly got to his feet. Takanosuke reached out a hand towards the barrier that divided them almost without thinking, and recoiled from the shock it gave off.  
Sakyo looked back towards his companion almost helplessly, a silent apology in his eyes that only Takanosuke had ever been able to see - whether or not the boy would forgive him, Sakyo knew he might never know.

"Well, isn't that just sweet..." Alcorin said from the other side of the field, drawing Sakyo's attention. The two of them, aside from the three Beys that still spun, were the only ones within the blue wall that surrounded them, the light making Alcorin look more blue than white at the moment.  
Despite Sakyo's actions, however, he was still smiling - one could almost say sweetly if they didn't know there was blood on his hands.  
"Looks like it's just you and me, sunshine~" The psychopath said cheerfully, and Sakyo felt chills go down his spine as the albino whistled softly, the high-pitched sound ringing off the walls.

"Oh, boys~!"

The hollow howls of the wolves that guarded most of the entrances and exits made Takanosuke jump, and the blonde immediately glanced around in fear to see all of those dead, lifeless eyes trained on him, faces that would normally be drooling with spittle blank like dolls, but still radiating off the intention kill.

"Takanosuke!... Takanosuke!" Sakyo's panicked voice ( _..Panicked?... No, he never sounded like that.. Never_ ) snapped the Griffin Blader out of his fearful trance, and his cerulean eyes met with red ones, filled with emotions that were far to prominent now to be Sakyo - or at least not the one he usually knew.  
In that split moment, Takanosuke was able to see those images that he had seen so long ago when he had looked at Sakyo, birds, broken glass, red, white, black, splatters of red, an owl, something black slinking past slyly, a screech that he couldn't identify - Takanosuke knew he recognized all those things suddenly all too late, and he knew it was the end.

"Run!" The Dragoon Blader shouted firmly, and Takanosuke didn't even think to hesitate.  
The boy immediately took off over to the side where one of the entrances lay unguarded, ducking past the pillars and dashing through the doorway - the wolves in the room almost immediately followed him in pursuit, disappeared just as quickly as Takanosuke had down the corridor.  
Sakyo, heart beating rapidly, breathing shallow, dread in his gut, looked back towards Alcorin with a fire in his crimson eyes.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" The Dragoon Blader demanded firmly, and Alcorin just smiled.  
"Sorry, but I'm afraid dear Takanosuke is gonna have to go." The psychopath said casually, "I'm not just going to let him take him from me, like they all want too... But you don't have worry about him - you'll be seeing him soon enough."  
Sakyo once more felt chills run down his spine, and he questioned at first while his legs and arms were shaking, why he was finding it hard to breath at the moment and why he couldn't think straight.  
What was this called?...  
He couldn't remember.

 **"Enough of this."** Alcorin said suddenly, a frown marking his face as his voice once more overlayed with another, more accursed sound, **"This has gone on long enough."**

Alcorin then thrust his left hand out in front of him, and Sakyo immediately felt something grab him around his torso - nothing physical, nothing that could be seen, (he knew that much), but a force that wrapped around him, grabbed him and pulled him into the air as Alcorin's bidding.  
The Dragoon Blader felt his heart pound in his chest, and he attempted to struggle even though he knew that it was _hopeless_ against someone with telekinesis, but that wasn't on his mind. His own well-being was the last thing on his mind at the moment.  
However, he was forced out of his own occupied thoughts once he felt the force around him give a sharp pull, and the only thing he saw was devilish red eyes before he was slammed over into one of the many stone pillars that supported the upper balcony and his mind nearly exploded in pain.

He gave a sharp cry at the unexpected impact, and swore he heard something crack in his shoulder - because of the pain that blossomed there, he could only assume that he actually had.  
Almost as soon as hit the column was he pulled back and then slammed into it again, side first.  
Then again, hard, and he felt something break.  
Then again, harder, and his shoulder made a sound that echoed to his collarbone and almost made him sick.  
Then, unexpectedly, he was pulled away from the column, pain wracking his mind and the sight of royal blue light, and white and black and red, filled his vision along with black spots, and he was suddenly pulled _back_ , and was slammed into the wall behind him.

Sakyo never got time to register the blow before he was pulled forward and then slammed back again, and again, and _again_ , and it was all just _pain_ , _everywhere_.  
Then he was pulled away farther, and he suddenly felt the air rushing down him as he himself was forced upwards, and he slammed into the ceiling, back first.  
He heard more than felt a crack somewhere, and he tasted metal on his tongue, the impact forcing him to cough out the blood that rose in his throat.  
After that, he was quickly brought back down again, though he was not slammed against the floor or the ceiling again as he had expected.  
Instead, he was suspended just a few feet above the stone ground for a moment, before the force that had latched onto him suddenly let him drop.

The Dragoon Blader grunted and groaned briefly at that before the sounds coming from him weakened into a pained whimpering as he was slowly forced to acknowledge how much everything really hurt.  
Sakyo found himself unable to move but for the small amount of twitching that his body spasmodically did anyway, but even if he _could_ he wouldn't want too.

Everything hurt... Everything.. His vision was filled with black spots around the edges, blurring every now and then and making him wish _so much_ for unconsciousness...  
But that didn't come, because why would it?  
Clearly, the god that he had stopped believing in - or so he had convinced himself - would give no mercy.  
All he could was lay there in silent and excruciating agony, just barely hearing booted footsteps against cold stone, and only barely seeing through continuously blurring vision as a figure dressed all in white, entirely white, made of white and red and black, approached and knelt down before him.  
As he lay there, breathing erratically, suffering thoroughly, Sakyo realized what it was that he had been feeling before and now.

Fear.

A dearest old friend of his.

Alcorin knelt down before the broken blader, and, unceremoniously, grabbed him by the collar of his trench-coat and yanked him up until they were face to face, ignoring the sharp breath of pain that the young man inhaled upon being moved so suddenly.  
Of that, Alcorin didn't give a damn.  
"What is it?" He asked sharply, that once playful tone gone from his voice and eyes, "What are you thinking?... 'Why am I doing this'? 'Why is this happening'? 'What will this achieve'?... What do you think? You thought I did this all for _nothing_? That I would just _let go_ of him after _all_ of this?!"  
Sakyo didn't answer.  
Of course, that was to be expected.  
How could he really care when he felt nothing but pain?

Alcorin's expression did not change, but he continued to look at Sakyo a moment longer before he simply let him drop to the ground again, ignoring the pained grunt the younger gave off. Alcorin then stood up, and stepped back several feet with the same displeased look on his face.

"I don't care whether he hates me or not..." The albino stated, "I don't care what I have to do... **You can't have him...** "

Once more, Alcorin put his hand out in front of him, and Sakyo braced for the force that he knew would grab him, and then would again slam him against all surfaces of this room without mercy.  
What he didn't expect, however, was to feel that same force grab him around his ankles, and slowly pull him upwards until he was dangling in the air by his legs.  
Sakyo's breath hitched, and then his mind went back briefly to Takanosuke, who he had forgotten about momentarily.

Oh god...

Takanosuke...

Suddenly, the force around his ankles pulled him sharply upwards, before slamming him down on the floor head first - _hard_.

Sakyo gave a loud cry at the impact, and he heard something crack.  
He was then dragged away quickly, raised sharply, and then slammed down again, and he cried out again, and saw blood.  
Red soon clouded one side of his vision, and his fingertips suddenly felt numb, but everything still _hurt_ , it _hurt so much_... He wanted to beg for it to stop, whether verbally or mentally, but that was worthless, and he knew it.  
There would be no mercy, not from Alcorin. Never.  
And certainly not from the smiling figure that he saw when he was quickly raised into the air again, who looked strangely like someone else he'd seen before, staring at him with all due pleasure and insanity in those red eyes that mirrored another's.

And then he was slammed down again, and something splattered, red.

And again, and there was more splattering, everywhere.  
The impact this time sounded and felt _wet_...

And again. Something broke and gave.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And then again, but, by this time, Alcorin wasn't slamming anything down head first but a dangling, lifeless corpse, now with just barely half a skull remaining.

The albino breathed heavily, and then let Sakyo's body drop to the ground, which was messy, covered in blood, and bone, and other juices, he was sure.  
Alcorin stood looking at nothing for a moment, the smell of blood and death and other things reaching him from the body only a couple meters away, but he gave no reaction. The blue wall that had surrounded the two of them had disappeared, along with Bellerophon at his own will, with Dragoon now laying motionless on the ground.  
A mirror image of what was left of its blader.  
Griffin, however, was nowhere to be found.

But Alcorin didn't care about that. There was no reason to stay here now. He had to deal with those other little pests, wherever they would be.

Almost as if nothing happened, Alcorin turned and walked away towards one of the many entrances of the room, before disappearing altogether, and leaving the mangled, blood-soaked corpse of what was once a human being to the wolves.  
And, of course, to the one who had stood staring with glee...

* * *

Takanosuke ran.

He ran endlessly, fueled now by nothing but adrenaline and fear as he heard the loud pattering of numerous paws behind him only by meters. How long he had been running for, he was unable to tell, but he could only guess how long from how much his legs burned, and how his chest and side ached effortlessly as he did everything he could to stay focused on _running_ , and watching everything in front of him to assure that he didn't trip, or reach a dead end, or make some mistake that would cost him his life. He didn't even care where he was running too, he just knew he had to get away. He also knew that if he hit a dead end, then it was all over.  
Takanosuke quickly turned a corner down another corridor lined with torches, and the wolves followed, as they were ordered, as he knew they would.

He just had to keep running... Keep running... Just like Sakyo told him...

So Takanosuke kept running.  
Kept running and running until he could barely breathe, and even then he didn't quit, not as long as he could still hear the wolves behind him. He turned corners swiftly, cerulean eyes filled with fear but still alert nonetheless.  
He was sure these corridors were endless, that he would be running forever, until he saw stairs up ahead. Strange that this place had stairs, but Takanosuke didn't care whether it did or not at the moment. He raced towards them, barely breathing, kept moving by nothing but adrenaline, and hastily climbed them to the upper floor with a mixture of quick steps and fast crawling - he didn't care how he got up the stairs, he just needed to _go_.  
In his hurry, Takanosuke hadn't been looking where he was going, and was therefore shocked when he found himself running into something and then toppling over onto the stone floor.  
The blonde grunted as he landed on the cold stone, and heard another such sound from in front of him, and then several other voices.  
For a moment, Takanosuke forgot about the animals that were chasing him.

"Takanosuke?" Asked a familiar voice, and said blonde opened his eyes and looked up. He was surprised - though, deep down, he also wasn't - to come face to face with Ren, with Shinobu, Kite, Zyro, and the rest of the others standing beside and behind her.  
Takanosuke lay there for a moment in both confusion and mild shock, before Zyro offered a hand up to him to help him up.  
Gratefully, he took it, and quickly rose to his feet, almost in unison with Kira. So that's who he ran into...

"Could've watched where you were going..." The mutlicolor-haired blader mumbled irritably as he stood up properly and brushed himself off.  
"What are you doing here, Takanosuke?" Madoka asked, which seemed to be what many of the others wanted to know as well.  
"W-well..." The Griffin Blader began breathlessly, "Same as you, really..."

"Didn't you say that you didn't wanna come along this time?" Ren asked somewhat skeptically.  
"Yeah, we did..." Takanosuke said while rubbing the base of his neck slightly, "But, afterwards, me and Sakyo deci-"  
At the sound of the elder's name, Takanosuke suddenly stopped mid-sentence, and then he remembered why he had run into them, why he had been running in the first.  
Because Sakyo had told him too, to get away from the wolves and-  
The wolves.  
The blonde's breath suddenly hitched, and he fearfully looked back down towards the stairs that he had come up. There _appeared_ to be no sign of them, but what was he to say for sure? They could be waiting. They were not ordinary wolves.

"Hey, Takanosuke, what's wrong?" Ren asked, suddenly concerned at the sudden change in behavior that the Griffin Blader was showing.  
"We have to go." The boy said suddenly, looking at all of them with fearful eyes, "Before they come back, we have to go!"

"Wait, 'before who comes back'?" Kite asked, confused.  
"The wolves!" The blonde explained, "They were chasing me, and they were right behind me! That's why I was running!"

"Since when does Alcorin have wolves?" Benkei asked, glancing down towards the staircase Takanosuke had come from.  
"Well, I don't know, but I don't want to wait to find out." Madoka said, sounding more than ready to go, "Come on, we should go.. This place is probably crawling with things that want to kill us."  
With that, all of them set off at a running pace, Takanosuke being the one to more or less lead the pack - it was actually quite impressive on how much he was able to just _go_ , considering how tired he was, how weakened everything so far had left him that none of the others knew about.  
The boy figured it was probably the adrenaline, that will that Sakyo had given him many times before, to keep running and not look back.  
So that's what all of them kept doing, hurrying through the halls and paying extra mind to where they were going.  
The went down corridors, through rooms that branched off several ways, and down more halls.  
They never heard the patter of numerous feet behind them, but they kept at a brisk pace anyway, because they knew that you could never be too careful.

It was only after what seemed like the longest time did Zyro suddenly stop in his tracks, making Eight, Kite, and Benkei run into him from behind, making him stumble and nearly fall over.  
"Geez, Zyro, what was that for?" Kite questioned sternly, and everyone else stopped as well, some of them just a little ways more ahead.  
"Are you okay?" Madoka asked, concerned. Zyro nodded, just barely glancing over towards her as he continued to look down one hall that they had just been about to pass.  
It was lit with torches, but much less than the rest of the corridors they had gone through so far. They were farther spaced apart, so the corridor was much darker than the rest - Zyro couldn't tell where it lead to.  
"Yeah, I'm okay," The boy said, "I just... Felt something.."

"Are we talking 'good feeling', or 'bad feeling'?" Kira asked.  
"I-I don't know, it's just... I feel something from down there." The Ifraid Blader explained, unsure, "Like, it feels familiar, it's weird..."  
All of them were silent, save for much of their heavy breathing, before Maru spoke.

"That kid..." She began, sounding uneasy, "He... He said that you've been able to feel Gingka, right?" Everyone turned their eyes to the small pinkette in surprise, and realized that she had a point. Yeah... The kid _had_ said that. "Gingka's here, and you said that it's familiar, so..." Maru almost seemed to think aloud, "Maybe it's him that you're feeling. I mean, it's not impossible, right?"

"Maru has a point.." Madoka said resolutely, "It definitely could be."  
Whether or not she meant for the hope in her voice to appear, no one was sure, but they all heard it.  
As much as it was dangerous to have such hopes in a situation - in a place - like this, most of them couldn't help but feel the same way.  
"Wait, what about Gingka?" Takanosuke questioned, suddenly confused, "I thought he was... You know..."

"It's a bit complicated..." Ren explained with a small sweat drop, "We can explain later.."

"Well, if we're so sure it's him, then let's go!" Benkei said with determination, and they were able to feel it at almost an equal volume. Because of this, they were all able to decide fairly quickly what they would do. Soon enough, they were setting down the barely lit corridor.  
"You realize we might die, right?" Kira asked flatly as he, too, went along with all of this.  
"I think we've got that down by now.." Shinobu responded, though it wasn't nearly as bitter as most of his previous responses to half of Kira's words had been.

At a slower, but still brisk pace, all of them journeyed down the mysterious corridor, following Zyro's lead as he almost really did seem to be pulled by whatever it was he felt.  
All of it was just one long hallway, with only a select few twists and turns that lead them on, as well as one staircase that lead them upwards, and then the hall kept going.  
However, it didn't take long after that staircase for them to see the ending in sight, which appeared to be a room, or antechamber.  
They found the latter to be true, as they kept to a small, circular space with a wide staircase leading upwards into the main chamber.  
Here was where Zyro felt that pull strongest.  
Hearts pounding (Zyro's the hardest, with Takanosuke's rivaling for an almost entirely different reason), all of them made their way up the stairs, both cautious and wondering what they would find in this large room that they had come too.  
Their answers were soon answered as they reached the top of the stairs, and many of them felt their hearts skip a beat at what - no, _who_ \- they saw at the other end of the room. It was dark in there, and the room was rather long, but it was still evident who was there, sitting almost sideways in a chair that was engraved into the rest of the room.  
Almost disbelieving of what he saw, breathless, awed, and - above all - relieved, Zyro managed to breathe out only one word. Right now, it may have been the only word he needed to hear.

"Gingka..."


	35. Chapter 34 - Name

Chapter 34 - Name

* * *

"Gingka!"

"Gingka!"

That was most of them couldn't help but cry out at the joyous sight of the blader that they had long thought to be dead, and it only took a moment before they all ran towards him.  
At the sound of his own name from those numerous familiar voices, Gingka found himself surprised... And afraid.  
Of course, he probably _shouldn't_ be afraid, but it wasn't something he could help. He was glad that they were here, glad that all of them were okay, that they cared enough to come after Alcorin, and him, even though they really didn't have too. But that was just like them - stubborn, and strong-willed.  
His fear, however, almost overwhelmed that positive feeling, because, chances were, they would be afraid.  
What would they think of him? Not even just about what he looked like at the moment, but just _about_ him... What if they didn't know?  
Chances are, they didn't, so seeing him as he was would be even more shocking to them even if they did know.. Regrettably, he almost wished that they weren't here.  
But even still, he dared to look over to them, though he didn't turn his head enough for them to see the left side of his face - he didn't want them to see that, even if he knew that they eventually would.

"Gingka, you're okay!" Madoka said joyously as they approached him, her relief seeming to be amplified by the fact that he was even awake.  
Most of them all looked pretty relieved at that. Gingka looked at them for a moment, his one eye showing how weary he was, and it took several moments for him to actually answer.  
"I didn't actually think you guys would be here..." He said softly, though his voice echoed naturally off the walls of the empty room.  
"Eh, you know us." Ren said with a shrug of her shoulders, though it did nothing to betray the hope and relief in her eyes, "We tend to show up sooner or later."

"We're just glad you're okay.." Madoka said with a warm smile, and Gingka found that it hurt to see that, "Especially after all of this..."  
Gingka looked down slightly, and a few of them noticed them. The redhead didn't seem the most happy to see them... "You didn't have to come here..." The Legendary Blader said quietly, "You _shouldn't_ have.."

"W-why?" Maru asked, confused.  
"Because..." Gingka said softly, "You don't know what he'll do to you.."

"Who, Alcorin?" Shinobu questioned rhetorically, "We've kinda got the just of it by now.."

"Which is why we should get going before he gets here.." Kite suggested, "I doubt he'll be happy."  
Takanosuke made an uncomfortable face at that, thinking back to Sakyo who had unwillingly left behind in that room..  
What had happened back there?... He really hoped he was okay.  
Then again, it was Sakyo, so there was almost no doubt that he'd probably some way out or another.  
"Kite's right." Madoka agreed, and stepped towards Gingka a bit, "Come on, we'll find a way out." Of all things, Madoka didn't expect Gingka to sudden flinch when she stepped towards him, and stopped in her tracks, confused.  
"Gingka?" She questioned, "Are you okay, what's wrong?"  
Gingka silently cursed himself for that. For the sudden jolt of fear that he had felt when Madoka had stepped towards him, when he had seen her start to reach a hand out toward him, and he wasn't even entirely sure for what reason it happened.  
Silently, the redhead shook his head, looking conflicted in all sorts of ways.  
"Gingka, what's wrong?" Madoka asked, concerned at this sudden behavior.  
Gingka was silent for only a few more moments before he shook his head a bit again, and said, "I can't..."

"What do you mean 'you can't'?" Shinobu asked, confused.  
"I mean, I _can't_..." Gingka said, "Not after this... Besides, you wouldn't want to take me with you if you half of the things I did..."

"Is this about lying about you _dying_ for 3 weeks?" Benkei asked, taking that as probably only the logical option.  
A lot of them knew how Gingka was most often - open, outgoing, willing to do almost anything for people he cared about; lying to those people, heck, lying _at all_ , just wasn't in his usual nature. No doubt that he probably feel guilty about it.  
"We can get past that, Gingka, it's fine." Madoka assured the redhead with a smile, "Besides, I think we can find it to forgive a lot of our mistakes after all we've been through."  
Gingka just shook his head, still not daring to look at them dead on.  
"Not this.." He said softly, "Not after everything that I've done, or what I..." Gingka fell silent, and he cursed himself silently for being so pathetic...  
They were his friends, and he knew that he could tell almost everything to them (Madoka, Kenta, Tsubasa, and most of the others had made that clear to him years ago in their youth), but this was not something that you just told anyone, let alone friends. They had all hated Nemesis, and that was a given, and he was sure they all hated Alcorin to hell, and that was also a given, but him...  
What would they make of him?  
Maybe that could be accepting, but he truly doubted it - after all, anyone who had ever had any sort of relation or something to do with the God of Destruction had never left a good mark on them.  
There was a part of him that was foolish enough to hope, but some other part of him just said that they would think of him as no different - and that part, he almost believed.

"We know he's your brother, if that's what you're getting at." Zyro said suddenly, and Gingka was, more or less, surprised. He gasped quietly, and then looked towards the raven with one eye. The rest of them glanced at Zyro as well, though they said nothing.  
"W-what?.." The redhead asked almost fearfully - Madoka could hear that in his voice, and she felt sorrow for him.  
"We know Alcorin's your brother." Zyro repeated, though a little awkwardly this time - because, really, how exactly do you say these kinds of things to people? "We kind of found out on our own, on our way here.."

"B-but, how...?"

"It's a long and complicated story we probably shouldn't get into.." Maru said, then sweat-dropped slightly once she really thought about it, "And a little too weird too explain at the moment..."

"Wait, they're... What?" Takanosuke asked, looking _very_ confused. Ren simply pat the kid's shoulder.  
"Just go along with it, it's a little hard to explain." She said, "We can tell everything after."  
Takanosuke looked at her skeptically for a moment, before slowly shrugging his shoulder awkwardly and deciding to take her word for it, as weird as was. What had he and Sakyo been missing out on this whole time?...  
Madoka simply nodded at her student, and smiled at Gingka in turn. "Yeah, so don't worry about that, Gingka." The brunette said reassuringly, "We already got all of that down by now.. It doesn't matter to us if you are two are twins or not, you're still the same."  
Was he?  
Gingka was almost surprised to find himself asking that question, as much as he was glad that they seemed to think so - even Kira (When did Kira decide to start helping out?) seemed pretty dead set on it.  
Was he even still him, after all of this?  
Who even was he?  
 _Which one_ was he?..  
Surely, that should probably be obvious to him by now, but... They accepted him for who and what he was - whatever he was - but would they actually the things he'd done?  
What he looked like at the moment might probably also be an issue, depending on how much they actually knew about it... Still, how could he tell him?  
He _could_ just not, he supposed, but he wouldn't feel good about that, or about telling them either. Clearly, he had no more options.  
Madoka just continued to look at him, and soon put her hands on her hips with a stern look, "Now come on, mister, we're getting out of here." She said firmly, "And we're sure as hell not leaving without you.."  
Gingka thought about protesting, but he knew there was no point when it came to Madoka. She was probably the most stubborn of them all, and he knew better than to argue. Besides, that would just waste more time, and probably put them into even more dangerous.  
Reluctantly, Gingka simply nodded, though he still refused to look at them.  
"I... Can't really walk.." He said just loud enough for them to hear, and Benkei almost immediately stepped forward.  
"Don't worry, I gotcha!" The big man said enthusiastically, and, before Gingka knew it, Benkei was directly in front of him and scooping him up bridal style into his arms.  
Gingka almost yelped at this, and stiffened for a moment at the feeling of hands touching him again ( _not again not again not again no_ ), and shook, before trying to force himself to relax as best as he could.  
Benkei, however, noticed that, and was confused, but didn't ask anything. The moment he turned around with him, Gingka could feel the eyes that were staring at him.

"Well, that's new.." Kira said skeptically, being as blunt as ever.  
Even with as much as they had been told by Ryo and that other kid, none of them had expected to see half of Gingka's face - perhaps half of his body as a whole - to be completely stripped of pigment, save for his hair.  
It looked like the skin was almost flaking off, almost like little paper squares that were attached to each other by mere slivers of paper that weren't enough to hold them like that forever. Of course, they (meaning all of them except for Takanosuke) had been told that Gingka and Alcorin were born albino, with pigment to speak of except for their eyes, which were red, but why half of Gingka's body was like that now was just... Weird.  
Takanosuke, who didn't know this, felt a shiver go through him and took a small step back, immediately being reminded of what Alcorin looked like.  
Clearly, the two of them definitely had a relation, but how that was possible he wasn't sure. Lately, he wasn't sure how any of this was possible.  
"Gingka..." Madoka started, unsure of what to say, "W-why are you... W-why is.."  
Gingka looked at her for a split moment before immediately looking away in shame, knowing that he really didn't have a good enough answer to give him.  
Why did things have to turn out like this?...

Madoka saw how suddenly upset the redhead looked at being asked, how uncomfortable and shameful ( _how that pained her..._ ) he looked to be, and decided to let that drop.  
"N-never mind." She said, "You don't have to say anything now, if you don't want, it's fine.."  
In response, Gingka said nothing.  
"Alright, let's go." The brunette said once she composed herself again, "I doubt Alcorin doesn't already know were here."  
Ren gave a small salute. "I'm with that." She said.  
"I would've thought he'd come after us by now, honestly..." Said Shinobu somewhat uneasily.  
"No jinxing!" Eight told him, and Kite openly agreed with him.  
It was only when they were all about to head off and leave did Gingka's few words then freeze them where they stood.  
"He's here." He said in an almost hollow voice, and they knew immediately that that was a statement, a fact, and not a question.

" _Why_ did I know that this is where I'd find all of you?.." Came a voice that spoke almost boredly, and all of them suddenly turned towards where they had come in - and found him standing there.  
Needless to say, most of them - save for Gingka and Takanosuke - had definitely not expected for Alcorin's appearance to look as it did - completely stripped of all color, wearing nothing but black and white, with only a splash of red to illuminate any of it. Those eyes, which reflected no light and barely any emotion, showed very clearly that he was not pleased.  
"Then again, what am I to expect?" The albino questioned, "Of course you would be... There's a lot of things that tend to go your way, after all." A sudden smile made it's way onto his face.  
"What do you want, Alcorin?" Madoka demanded, sounding far more fearless in the presence of the demi-god than she ever originally had.  
"Oh, I think you know full well what I want here." Alcorin said simply, and shrugged his shoulders lightly, "After all, you _are_ holding him.."  
Zyro glanced back briefly towards Gingka, who just sat there in Benkei's arms, saying nothing.  
"You're not keeping him." Zyro stated firmly.  
"Oh really?" Alcorin questioned playfully, "We can see about that... Dear Sakyo certainly wasn't a problem, and I truly doubt that any of you will be any different."

"W-wait, what?" Takanosuke suddenly asked at the mention of Sakyo, and a wave of fear and worry washed over him.A few of the others glanced at the blonde boy, suddenly worried as well.  
"Oh, like you don't already know..." Alcorin said teasingly, a sadistic light in his eyes, "After you so rudely ran off, I dealt with your dear Sakyo _very_ easily.. You really should've been there. It was _quite_ the sight to see... Really amusing to see him of all people like that. Just laying on the ground, twitching, whimpering like a dying animal.. He didn't beg, though, which was a shame... Though, I supposed I _may_ have broken his jaw, so I'll let him off on that one. And then when we were done, he was barely even recognizable as _human_ let alone the dear Sakyo _you_ knew. I don't doubt that there's a pretty good amount of his skull all over the floor right now~"  
Takanosuke had already started shaking well before the explanation had even started, and it didn't get any better after it.  
When it had started, he had started shaking.  
When it got to the part where he was on the floor, the boy had shook his head repeatedly, not wanting to believe any of it.  
By this time, the kid looked about ready to collapse, many of them could see that Takanosuke's legs were just about ready to give out from underneath him, and the look on his face was too heart wrenching to even put into words. Defiance, disbelief, anguish, sorrow, things that couldn't be named - from the last part, he looked _sick_ , and none of them could blame them from the similar notion of nausea that they got as well.  
Eyes wide, tears just on the edges of his eyelashes with every word that Alcorin spoke, bottom lip held down tightly by his upper teeth. Throughout the whole thing, he could barely focus on anything except those words, as much as he didn't want too...  
But even still, as he heard them, he wanted nothing more to deny it all.

Just... No..  
Sakyo... Not Sakyo, definitely not Sakyo, that couldn't have happened, it _couldn't_ have happened...  
This was _Sakyo_. He would never let anything like that happen to him... Sakyo had told him that everything would be fine, and he knew that Sakyo very rarely made promises, and any promises he _did_ make he usually intended to keep.  
But... No, that couldn't have happened, it _couldn't_ have!  
 _Not_ Sakyo!... Takanosuke looked down towards the ground, his vision running blurry from the tears that clouded his eyes and soon started dripping down his cheeks.

"Aw, poor baby.." Alcorin said mockingly, that damned smile still on his face.  
"Leave him alone.." Gingka said suddenly, which drew Alcorin's attention briefly, that smile momentarily disappearing from his face.  
Gingka looked over at his younger brother, a weary, shameful, but very disapproving look on his face.  
What all of them found the most astonishing, was that the psychopath even seemed to consider it.  
Quietly, behind the rest of him and more with Benkei and Gingka, Takanosuke sank to his knees, looking at nothing as the tears poured down his face, leaving streaks of salt water, along with quiet, contained sobs that went unheard by quite a few of them, but were heartbreaking nonetheless.  
Right now, the kid may as well have had nothing... And Alcorin had taken the time to rub it in his face.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Madoka questioned rhetorically, looking quite pissed off at the moment.  
"Oh, a number of things!" Alcorin answered with mock enthusiasm, "But I think you already got by now.."

"You're just plain sick, you know?" Ren said almost flatly, glancing back sorrowfully towards Takanosuke, who seemed to be almost entirely tuned out from everything.  
"Oh please.." The albino said with a small giggle, "I've done some namely terrible things, I'm willing to admit.. But how about we talk about what _Gingka's_ done, hm?"

"What does that mean?" Kite questioned cautiously, not trusting this one bit.  
"Ya know, I'm _almost_ surprised you don't know, but I'm also not... Besides, I _really_ doubt you'd actually want to take him with you knowing what _he's_ done.."

"Get to the point." Kira said bluntly in a way that screamed 'I'm done, enough with the vague crap'.  
Alcorin giggled softly, an eerie sound that echoed off of the stone walls and all around, sending shivers through all of them that couldn't be helped.  
"Fine then." The albino agreed, and looked at them with a malicious look that wanted nothing more than their suffering, "I highly doubt you really want someone back so much who killed his own father."  
At those words, all occupants on the room froze, and Gingka, pathetically, he'd admit, ducked and looked away, shame and guilt and agony etched onto his face, though he did not pull himself any closer to Benkei - he wouldn't do that.  
Not after this...

"I call bullshit." Zyro said suddenly after a few brief moments of silence, and quite a few of them were surprised that Zyro had actually swore - though they _really_ didn't blame him.  
Alcorin, being the master of manipulation he was, was clearly just saying these kinds of these - as morbid as they were - to tear them down as he always had, but this one was rather strange, since even _he_ had to know that they wouldn't believe such a thing.  
Madoka most certainly didn't believe something like that. She had been around the two of them for many years, and she knew that Gingka and Ryo were very close as the only family that either hand - well, not biologically, she supposed, but did it really make a difference?  
Gingka would never even imagine hurting anyone he cared about, let alone his own father.  
Besides, wouldn't Ryo had something about that when they had met him in that supposed purgatory?... It couldn't be true, and she knew that, but there was something about the smirk on Alcorin's face that sent shivers down her spine, even though that was normal.  
"Yeah, you would, I know.." The psychopath said almost wistfully, "But if _really_ don't believe me, then just ask the man yourself... See if he can look you in the eye and tell you I'm lying."  
They all knew it was just a ploy, just a thing to distract them, disorient them, but a few of them - Madoka and Zyro included - found themselves looking back towards Gingka, suddenly concerned at the guilt and shame on his face that had been there since they arrived. Now that they thought about it, it really was unusual...  
"Gingka..." Madoka started, "He's lying, right?" Gingka didn't give an answer, and that made the brunette very uneasy, "Gingka?... He's lying, isn't he?.."  
Gingka looked down, seeming to curl into himself, his expression guilt-ridden with shame and agony and grief.  
"I..." Gingka seemed to begin to say, but was unable to finish.  
At this, Madoka knew, and her heart sank.  
Of course, she wasn't the only one, and they all found themselves unable to understand.  
Zyro was among the ones who just weren't able to believe something like that. After all, Gingka had told him, on that night that now seemed so long ago, that his father had died a couple years ago from the sickness in their village that remained incurable to this day, and the raven was fairly sure that wasn't just something one lied about, since, from all that Ryo had told them, it sounded pretty legit.  
Despite his lying of his own well-being, it was highly doubtful that Gingka would lie about his own father's death - when he had told Zyro, it had been wholly sincere from all he could see, and there was real grief in those eyes that had still lingered.  
Besides, if Gingka _had_ been lying, wouldn't it have just been easier to dismiss it and say that Ryo was fine instead? After all, it was probably highly more believable.  
Gingka killing his own father - hurting _anyone_ in such a way - was just too impossible to believe.  
Still, the redhead's silence and facial expression of guilt and utter shame spoke more volumes than any words could have.

"See?" Alcorin said with a smile in his voice, "He's really _not_ the messiah everybody makes him out to be, now is he? What a shame..."  
By this time, all of them were way more than done with this psychopath, no matter what he said to turn them against the one man they were trying to save, no matter how many strings he pulled to tear them down, and Zyro, thoroughly deciding that he didn't care what Alcorin was saying, whipped around and pulled out both his launcher and Ifraid before connecting them, and taking on the stance that he was more than familiar with.  
Several of them looked at him in both surprise and confusion, before all of the bladers of the group - save Benkei, Gingka, and Takanosuke - turned and did the same, a silent agreement between all of them that no one spoke of.  
Seeing the battle that was soon to be initiated, Benkei took silent permission from Gingka to set the redhead down, and did so, setting him down gently beside him and relatively out of harm's way, before he himself also stepped forward by only a couple steps and pulled out Bull and his launcher.  
All bladers now took their readied stances, with all others, being Gingka, Madoka, Maru, and Takanosuke, taking place behind them. At the show of defiance, Alcorin looked greatly annoyed, an unimpressed look on his face.  
"Is this seriously how you settle _all_ things?..." He asked boredly, but no one paid any mind to that. After a moment, Alcorin seemed to sigh.  
"Fine." He said grudgingly, **"See what good it does you."**  
The albino waved his left hand off to the side briefly, and out of thin air appeared the Bey that, still, none of them were able to entirely figure out - Bellerophon.

 **"Let's play."**

There were shivers induced at the sound of that voice, unforgiving, cold, malicious, though Gingka seemed to be the one who was only very slightly affected, less than the others.  
Of course, it had to be a twin thing...  
Even so, none of that delayed the bladers on the other side of the room from taking action, all of them launching their Beys in near unison, though with no word of that immortal cry to be heard among any of them.  
Even still, there was no denying the fire that blazed from both ends.

"Ifraid!"

"Phoenix!"

"Salamander!"

"Bahamoote!"

"Leviathan!"

"Orochi!"

"Bull!"

All 7 Beys took heed to their bladers' commands, all face bolts glowing in the respective auras that belonged to them before they all raced forward, though they knew to be cautious of this Bey that was as confusing as anything.  
Alcorin, however, did not wait this time for them to approach. Instead, the albino snapped the fingers of his left hand, and Bellerophon disappeared once more.  
Madoka seemed about to say something about that before the Bey reappeared again directly in front of all the approaching Beys, and with the haunting sound of, "Bellerophon!", the top of it shifted, and that familiar ring of energy that most of them had seen before it was released unexpectedly, knocking all 7 Beys back in a rain of metal that sent them all back several meters.  
"It can do that?!" Benkei questioned loudly.  
"Yeah, it can do a lot of things." Shinobu answered, before throwing his arm out to the side.

"Salamander!"

"Phoenix!"

"Leviathan!"

"Orochi!"

All four Beys, after regaining their balance, swerved off to the right, both Orochi and Leviathan speeding off ahead of the other two, and quickly circling around Bellerophon.  
Bull came from the front.  
"Bull!" Benkei exclaimed loudly, "Special Move! Maximum Stampede!" The face bolt of said Bey pulsated and glowed in a bright fiery aura, and visible flames wrapped around the Bey as a whole as it charged head on, preparing to use all of its raw attack power to do whatever damage it could to Bellerophon as several Beys came at it from all sides.

"Take him down, Phoenix!"

"Go, Salamander!"

"Orochi!"

"Leviathan!"

"B-b-b-Bull!"

All 5 Beys surrounded the one in the middle, and quickly headed all in to come at it from all sides. It probably would've actually done some damage to the opposing Bey, had Alcorin just let it sit there, like any other Bey might in a normal battle, but he didn't allow such a thing.  
Madoka only realized this all too late when she suddenly saw the psychopath snap his lithe fingers once more by his side.  
"Wait!" She cried out, "Pull ba-!"  
Unfortunately, all 5 Beys were already too far in to pull back, and the bladers only just realized it a split second before they made impact upon Bellerophon.  
Only they didn't - the Bey that they had been aiming to attack suddenly disappeared again, and made all 5 Beys crash into each other unexpectedly. Bull's special move sent all of them flying, all of its power suddenly projected onto the 4 other Beys that had been involved in the attack, knocking them back a good few feet and causing of them to wobble precariously - Bull among them, since a lot of its power had been used up.  
"You can't do that!" Eight protested towards the albino, "That's cheating!"  
Alcorin simply gave a light chuckle, and tilted his head to the side eerily.  
"Well, you know me.." He said almost sweetly, "I don't typically play by your rules... Bellerophon!"

Once more did Bellerophon appear out of nowhere, this time in the general vicinity of all five Beys that had attempted to attack it.  
Once more, the top of it shifted, and that ring of royal blue energy appeared between the Warrior and Elemental Wheels, before it shot off with a powerful force.

"Phoenix!"

"Orochi!"

At the sound of their names called, both Beys immediately regained whatever balance they could and spun off and away from the ring of light before it hit them, which left only Salamander and Leviathan, both of them tried to pull back too late.  
Madoka bit her lip softly, her thumb placed just under her lower lip as a bit of a nervous habit, watching with anxious turquoise eyes as the battle continued to commence - and it definitely didn't seem to be working out in their favor.  
To her, it was almost symbolic, because Alcorin was doing exactly with Bellerophon as he always did in all the time they'd known him - eluding them, and breaking them down by getting them to break themselves.  
The Bey battle they had originally had was nothing like this, but, then again, the psychopath had already known that he had won in that moment. This time, he didn't even care about toying with them anymore, as had been evident with what he had said he had done to Sakyo (she continuously glanced over to Takanosuke in concern at that reoccurring thought, where he still just sat there, trying to wipe his tears).  
This time they were an actual threat, and they all knew that he wasn't going to stop until they were out of the way and he got when he had wanted for who-knows-how-long - Gingka.

All the while, Alcorin didn't stop, continuing to bash down on the other Beys with not even everything he had, his supposed teleporting of the Bey around making things almost effortless on his part. Even Zyro and Kira - some of the strongest among bladers - kept getting thrown around, and it was evident that they were all getting frustrated by it.  
After a few more blows, it was evident that they were all getting exhausted the more it went on.  
"Just stop it!" Maru exclaimed once Ifraid and Leviathan were thrown back again with that unrelenting force that Bellerophon continuously let off, causing most of them to stagger back a bit, "Isn't this enough? Just stop!"  
Madoka glanced down towards her apprentice, and gently placed a hand on her small head. She could see the desperation in Maru's eyes, and the fear of what would come.  
The girl _had_ to know that the albino wouldn't stop, but she pleaded anyway, afraid. Afraid to see them end up the same way Dynamis had - after all, there were plenty of pillars in this room for that.  
Madoka's heart clenched at that look on her protege's face - no child, especially not as young as Maru at six years old, should ever have that look on her face.  
The pinkette then flinched when Alcorin's gaze shifted over to her, red eyes cold and malicious, unmerciful, and then backed up more into Madoka out of pure fear.

" _ **Stop**_?" The albino asked in that discomforting voice of his, "I am _not_ just going to _stop_ after all of this. I've waited... I _waited_ for him for _far_ too long... I am _not_ going to allow _anyone_ to separate us _ever again_..." Zyro staggered slightly, eyes widening as he recognized those words that he only now distantly remembered from a dream, where they had seemed like the most incomprehensible thing, and Alcorin's eyes shifted over to the man that he wanted to keep, "My dearest.. De **arest brother**.."  
Gingka visibly flinched at this words, and looked away, his hands clenched gently in his lap.

Zyro shook his head before throwing his hand out in front of him, and cried out, "Ifraid!", which made the others follow suit.

"Bahamoote!"

"Phoenix!"

"Orochi!"

"Salamander!"

"Leviathan!"

"Bull!"

All 7 Beys once more took off towards the silver, black, and dark blue Bey that spun in the middle, the bladers quickly trying to devise some sort of plan for taking it down.  
Not that that would probably do anything to Alcorin, but even still... They could hope, because that was all they had at the moment, no matter how dangerous the prospect of it was.  
Either way, the circumstances were different from last time - Alcorin wasn't using anyone as a substitute, for as well as they could see, for those eyes were all his.  
Now all they had to do was defeat him.  
If they could.  
The only thing that rang in the air was the sound of clashing metal and commanding war-cries, an incorporeal fire filling the room, filled with determination and all of the strength that any of them could muster. Even still, the odds remained the same.

As broken down as he was, Gingka still found himself looking up towards the battle, towards all of them, watching but not really _seeing_ as it commenced before him, before all of them, in a battle that would probably only go one way no matter who won.  
The thrill that he had always originally felt when seeing such a battle had very well extinguished.  
The absence of that feeling hurt him a lot, but there was nothing he could do about that.  
All he could do was watch as Beys clashed, as lights shone for a split second before disappearing and then reappearing again, only to repeat the same pattern.  
He admired them - the young bladers that stood before him. He was sorry he had let them down, for as well as he knew, there was no other way of getting out of this...  
Which confused him, as he kept finding himself looking towards his younger brother across the field, kept staring at that nearly stoic face that was supposedly identical to the time when they had been born.  
That face... He _knew_ that face...  
Not just from when they had met the first time, when he had first seen him (though vaguely) in Metal Bey City before most of this had ever happened, but further back.  
He didn't even know how that was possible, because they had never met before then...  
But he knew that face...  
He knew it...

 _"-atch me if you can!"..._

Gingka's eyes, mismatched now, widened slightly, shivering as he felt something suddenly came back to him.  
Memories, from when he was young, _very_ young, not even out of toddler years. Hell, he barely remembered anything before he was five or six, except for a select few snippets here and there..

 _..Children's laughter, their own..._

So.. Why was it coming back now?..  
What was...  
And suddenly, he remembered it all, faint as it was.

* * *

 _It was a rather cloudy day in Koma village, grey coating the sky thoroughly with a few dark patches nearby, threatening rain. The adults were trying to get as much done as they could for the day before the rainfall, which would definitely welcome once it came, but also currently saw as a time bomb for them to get their work and chores all done before it happened.  
Some of the older children were helping out too, while all the younger ones below the age of eight and seven were left with free reign of what they did their spare time.  
Despite the oncoming dreary weather, it didn't stop many of them from playing outside for as long as they could - this including Gingka and Hyoma, aged four and five, who ran around in the small field next to Gingka's house, playing tag gleefully with each other._

 _"Catch me if you can!" Hyoma called back playfully to the younger boy, who chased him around with the biggest smile on his face, laughing all the while as he chased the older around with a single strand of wheat and tried to tag him with it._  
 _Hyoma could obviously run faster than him, which they both knew very well, but the violet-haired boy hung back to let Gingka try and tag him - it wouldn't be fair otherwise._  
 _Whether or not Gingka knew that he was hanging back was unclear, but the redhead didn't really seem to care either way._  
 _Within the next minute or so, Gingka had managed to get close enough to the older boy to tag him, but instead deciding to tackle him from behind, sending both of them rolling to the ground in a fit of child-like laughter._  
 _Both them untangled themselves, and just lay like that on their backs for several moments, laughing to their little hearts' delights, before a woman's voice broke over their fun and reached their ears._

 _"Hyoma~!" Called a voice from down the hill, the tone warm and motherly, "You should come in before it starts raining!"_

 _"Coming mom!" Hyoma called back towards his mother, before quickly standing up along with Gingka. Hyoma turned to the little redhead and smiled._  
 _"I'll see you later Gingka." He said, patting the boy's head._  
 _"Okay!" Gingka greed enthusiastically with a nod, before waving goodbye to his best friend as he quickly made his way down the hill towards his own house and his mother, Isha._

 _Gingka, still smiling, watched as Hyoma went and waited until he was out of sight to turn look at the sky._  
 _His dad had taught him that dark clouds were a sign of rain, so chances were that he would probably be calling him in soon. Gingka didn't like rain sometimes, since it didn't allow for playtime outside, but he had been told that it was good for their crops, so he supposed it was a good thing, right? Right, he agreed with himself._  
 _He was just about to turn to head inside when something reached his ears, and he stopped to listen to what it was - it sounded like talking, most likely grown ups._  
 _Nearby too. He knew he wasn't supposed to intrude on any conversations, but his surely he could still just look and see what was going on, right?_  
 _That wasn't really breaking the rules, so..._  
 _Mind made up, Gingka carefully followed the sounds of the voices, which he didn't have to go far to find the sources of - it was right on the side of his and his dad's house._  
 _Being as silent as possible, he crept around the side of the house and peered around the back, seeing several adults in conversation with each other. He recognized a couple of those people, in their robes that he had grown to know quite well - it was two of the priests, though he wasn't sure which ones exactly._  
 _Obviously it wasn't the really older one, since he couldn't stand._  
 _Both of them were talking with another man, who was dressed in dark clothing and wore a hood, prepared for the rain to come. Gingka had never seen him before around the village, and everybody here knew everybody... Though, he didn't focus on that as much as he focused on the other person standing just beside him._

 _The person was small, just a little kid them-self, and clothed all in black. Black boots, black pants, black umbrella just in case, and a black raincoat with the hood drawn over their head, hiding most of their features._  
 _Suddenly, Gingka really wasn't all too interested in what the adults' conversation was about anymore. He instead continued to look at the other kid, who he was also sure he had never seen before, which meant that he could be with the adult that he had never seen before, and he wasn't sure why he kept staring._  
 _Staring was rude, as he had been told, but this time he just couldn't help it._  
 _It didn't take long before the other looked his way as well._  
 _Gingka suddenly felt a jolt and shiver run through him, and he trembled momentarily. He wasn't sure why, he didn't even know if he was making eye contact with the other kid, but something felt weird about it._  
 _It was like that for several moments, the two of them just looking at each other, the other child looking almost just as curious, but neither said anything. They just stared at each other, and Gingka wasn't sure why he felt so weird about it..._

 _Before too long, the conversation that had been going on, or maybe a type of 'business deal', ended, and both priests wished the man Gingka had never seen before farewell, before departing off down the hill._  
 _Neither of them noticed Gingka, and neither did the man who stood holding a case with him, who turned and started walking away._

 _"-u, let's go.." He said as he started walking away at a slow pace._

 _What did he say...?_

 _At the calling of his name, the other child snapped out of his trance-like state of looking at Gingka, which in turn snapped Gingka out of his._  
 _The kid turned and hurried to catch up with the man, dragging umbrella quickly along with him, and only glanced back once towards Gingka, before never they both disappeared down the opposite side of the hill, and never looked back._  
 _Still, Gingka stood there, unsure of what they had just been called._  
 _"Gingka! Time to come inside!" He heard his father, Ryo, calling from around the other side of the house - it was only then did the redhead suddenly feel the rain drops that were starting to fall._  
 _"Coming dad!" He called back, and turned to head inside._  
 _However, he glanced back once towards where that man and child had stood, unable to get what little had seen of the other's face out of his head. What had they been called?..._

 _ **"...-u..."**_

 _What was they're name?..._

 _ **"...-i-u...**_

 _He had heard it... What was it?_

 _ **"...-in-ru..."**_

 _Their name..._

 _ **"...-inoru..."**_

 _No..._

His _name._

 _ **"Minoru."**_

* * *

"Minoru." Gingka said suddenly, his quiet voice echoing off the stone walls like the clashing of several Beys, which allowed everyone to here him. Everyone, including Alcorin.

 **Ba-thump**

There was a split second when the psychopath faltered, a quiet gasp escaping his lips as he felt something jolt inside of him, before his eyes, along with everyone else's, went to the redhead.

"W-what?" Madoka asked, confused.  
Gingka looked at her, this time not faltering, and said, "My brother's name is Minoru."

 **Ba-thump**

Alcorin flinched at the sound of that name, and again felt something jolt.  
No, not something. _Someone_.  
Zyro, however, noticed the sudden effect that it had on the psychopath, and suddenly had an idea.  
"Gingka, keep saying that name." The Ifraid Blader told the redhead, and everyone, including Gingka, looked at him, confused.  
"Why?" The redhead asked, though he could see that this had a meaning to it - if anything, he would trust Zyro's judgement.  
"It's effecting him somehow." The raven explained, gesturing over to Alcorin on the other side of the field, "If you keep saying it, you might be able to get through to him... Don't ask why, it's too long of a story, but just trust me on this!"  
Gingka looked at the dual-haired boy for a moment, seeming to consider this, before he nodded, feeling determined for the first time in what felt like forever.  
"That is the smartest and craziest thing I've ever heard, and that's saying a lot, Zyro." Kira said as they all turned back to the commencing battle.  
"Thanks, and I know..." Zyro said gratefully, somehow feeling that that was a compliment. Considering Kira, it was probably meant to be.  
"Are you sure about this?" Shinobu asked, looking at his best friend.  
"Yeah, I hate to admit it, but this seems a bit like a one-shot thing..." Ren added.  
Zyro shook his head.  
"No." He said in answer to Shinobu, "And yeah, it kinda is..."

"Comforting." Kira said almost lightheartedly.  
"Whatever, let's just do this!" Kite said in conclusion for all of them, and not a single person protested.

"Ifraid!"

"Salamander!"

"Bahamoote!"

"Phoenix!"

"Orochi!"

"Leviathan!"

"Bull!"

All seven Beys burst into action, face bolts glowing in their respective auras, and this time putting their all into their next actions.  
If Zyro's theory rang true, than this time they shouldn't necessarily have a problem. Alcorin glared coldly, and seemed just about to command Bellerophon to do something or another, before Gingka called out.

"Minoru!"

 **Ba-thump**

Just as before, Alcorin suddenly faltered with another jolt, and a sudden stir that halted him in his tracks. His red-eyed gaze went to Gingka, who sat there, staring at him intently with all sorts of mixed emotions in those mismatched eyes - one was determination, of which had not been present for a very long time.

"Minoru, I know you can hear me!"

 **Ba-thump** ( _the strings shuttered_ )

Alcorin flinched again, feeling a sudden pain in his head that was faint, but still annoying, and tried with everything he had to force it all back down as he had for many years, because _he was the one in control, not him_..

"I know you're in there, Minoru!"

 **Ba-thump** ( _he twitched, struggled to move what little he could, the strings shuttered more_ )

The ache in his head grew, not painful, but agitating, annoying, very present, but he could still push all of that down if he tried, he _had_ to be able too...  
He was _not_ letting that little brat out ever again!..

"Minoru! Listen to me!"

 **Ba-thump** ( _his movements stronger, pulling against them, resisting for the first time in forever, the strings started to bend_ )

Once more, the ache intensified, and the albino's head started pounding, and he flinched, feeling that jolt, that shiver, that stir, and he _hated_ it...  
He had held that brat down so that he would _never_ come about again, held him down as he faded, and slowly but surely disintegrated into nothing, and he _intended_ to keep it that way...  
He placed his left hand on his head, over his left temple, and he didn't even care about the battle going on before him - not that he had actually cared about it anyway, but that didn't matter.  
Everyone noticed this as well, even Takanosuke, who, with bloodshot eyes and a tear-stained face, now had at least mustered the courage to look up, though the occasional sniffle still made its way through.  
"I think it's working, Chief!" Maru said enthusiastically to her teacher. Madoka nodded in agreement, her heart pounding in her chest hard enough to break a rib, hoping beyond all hope that what Zyro had suggested really would work - and from the looks of it, it was.  
Resolute, all the bladers in the field kept on attacking Bellerophon however much they could, of which now just sat there, spinning motionlessly.

"Minoru!"

 **Ba-thump** ( _he pulled against them, fighting, the strings bent, twisted, protested_ )

Now the ache in his head was bordering on painful, both hands on his head now, and he tried to block out the sound of that voice calling that name..  
Between his trying to suppress the little brat, between the fighting and the denial, he almost wondered why in the _hell_ that name was doing so much.

" _Minoru!_ " **Ba-thump** ( _he pulled, eyes and fingers twitching, hard as he could, the strings strained_ )

Alcorin flinched, gritting his teeth, constantly screaming " _No!_ " within his own head, because he was the one in control here, always had been...  
Then again... He supposed a name, an identity, _did_ have massive amounts of power over a person... After all, the only thing that had kept the brat in check, before now, was stripping him of his - and that was all it had taken.

" **Wake up, Minoru!** "

 **Ba-thump!** ( _the strings gave_ )

Suddenly, a scream ripped through the air, and everyone jumped once they heard it, staring at the albino across from them of who emitted it.  
There was no scream that any of them had ever heard sound like _that_.  
It was double-layered, shared by two different voices, almost robotic, demonic sounding, and pained, a kind of pain that you would probably never hear, like that of being ripped apart and choking on your own blood, or another.  
Raw, barely human.  
It was the kind of sound that induced nightmares.  
And Alcorin was the one who screamed it, his head down, both hands on either side of his head, eyes clenched shut.  
All of them felt shivers race through them at the sound, even Gingka, who wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment.  
That sound almost seemed to go on forever before it slowly died down, and when it did, the albino breathed in breathlessly, and, in that layered voice of his that now sounded much different, spoke.

 **"..Gin..gka..."**

 **BA-THUMP**

At the sound of his name, at the speaking of those words, both of Gingka's eyes pulsated red - as did everyone else's.  
However, the red soon faded back to the original color of their eyes (save for Gingka's left eye), leaving all of them suddenly confused.

"What just...?" Ren started to ask before trailing off.

Nobody answered, and nobody got the chance too before a loud 'cracking' sound filled the air, like glass.  
All eyes glanced around, before Eight finally looked down toward the floor and pointed.  
"The floor!" He exclaimed, pointing to the direct middle of where all of them were standing.

All eyes looked down towards where the boy pointed, and saw that, indeed, the stone floor was cracking.  
But as stone naturally did - no, like _glass_ , the sound of crackling glass filling the air as the cracks spread all around them.  
They knew it probably would've been the best idea to run, but nobody thought of that, watching in awestruck panic as the cracks in the floor beneath them spread quickly like a spider web.  
The cracks spread out quickly, unceasing until they wrapped all of them around in its deadly and fragile web, before it collapsed all together, the loud sound of shattering filling the air. It was almost a delayed reaction, since nobody really started moving until they were already falling through the floor that had given like thin glass with massive amounts of pressure pushed upon it.  
Several of their screams were the only other things heard, and many were left watching as the light above quickly left their view, unable to be reached.  
And the below them, darkness.


	36. Chapter 35 - Brother Dear

Chapter 35 - Brother Dear

* * *

They really needed to stop with all of this falling and teleporting to and from different places on whatever planes of reality they belonged too... That was one of the first thoughts Zyro had as he began to stir, finding himself strangely aware, and not as groggy as he would have expected. That was much different from the other two times this had happened to them (all presumably within the same day)... The fact that he seemed to the one who had woken up first was nothing new though.  
The Ifraid Blader groaned softly as he moved to push himself up onto his knees, and found the floor - or he assumed it was a floor - beneath his fingers to feel surprisingly smooth, cool to the touch. That was definitely different from where they had originally been, where the floor had been stone, smoothed out, but still rough and chalky, nothing like this.  
With ease, Zyro got himself up onto his knees, and rubbed at his eyes, quickly getting the little bit of sleep out of them that had managed to gather.  
Well, at least he wasn't sore this time... The moment Zyro opened his sky blue eyes to look around and see where they had landed themselves this time, he nearly had his breath taken away - for more than one reason.  
For one, it was shocking, as he looked around and saw that they had landed in an entirely different place than where they had been, in all sense of the word.  
Everything was no longer made of stone, but almost looked like it was made out of one, giant, solid crystal, smoothed out perfectly until there were no bumps or juts until the craftsman wanted there to be. Whatever it was made out of it, all of it shone with pale blues and whites and light purples, with glimmering spots that looked almost like stars from within.  
Everything around them was carved of the same thing, made to look like a temple, as it appeared, though a far more beautiful one than they had originally been in. The second reason was, as had been mentioned before, that it was breathtakingly beautiful - you really didn't ever see something like this everyday in your lifetime.

Zyro snapped out of his awe-induced trance once he heard several soft groans from around him, and turned himself to look over at the others, who were all starting to stir as well.  
"We need to stop doing that..." Ren muttered aloud, repeating Zyro's earlier thoughts as she too, sat up - she didn't appear to be that sore or groggy either.  
"Agreed.." Kite said softly as he and Eight both sat up, which was soon followed by Shinobu, and Kira, and then Maru and Benkei, and then Madoka and Takanosuke.  
"Ugh... Where are we?" Maru asked once she managed to rub her eyes a bit and look around.  
"I don't know, but I'm just hoping not some sort of purgatory at this point.." Kira said flatly in response.  
"I have never agreed with you more..." Said Shinobu wearily.  
"How did we even end up here, anyway?" Benkei asked as he stood up and looked around at their surroundings. All of them soon followed suit, though a few were able to stand up with less difficulty than others.  
"I remember falling through a floor.." Eight recalled, and all of them could at least agree that they had remembered that, as strange as it had been.  
"How did that even happen?" Maru questioned, confused.  
"I think Alcorin might have done that, from the sounds of it." Zyro answered, "I mean, I dunno if anybody else felt... _Whatever_ that was... When he talked, but I think he might have been the one who did that.."

" _Definitely_ , actually." Ren stated, who looked slightly uncomfortable at the topic, "As much as I hate to say it, I've felt that more than once..." All of them knew at that point what she was getting at, but nobody said anything about it.  
"Y-yeah..." Madoka said in, at first, faltering continuation, "That happened.. But, that was after Gingka kept saying- Wait... Where's Gingka?"  
At this question, all of them took to looking at their group - sure enough, Gingka wasn't with them. How had they had noticed that before?...  
Everyone then turned to look around the large room, crystallized room that they stood it, observing every corner of white-blue-purple floor and surroundings. It was only a moment before Takanosuke spotted him.  
"Over there!" The blonde boy announced to the others, pointing over in a direction just North ( _South, East, West, it was hard to tell..._ ) of them, nearer to a crystal staircase at the far end of the chamber.  
Everyone turned, and, sure enough, Gingka was there, unconscious.

"Gingka!"

"Gingka!"

Their quick footsteps echoed loudly in the crystal-like chamber as they ran over to the unconscious redhead, who lay on his side - and who, they also happened to notice, was no longer split between two different skin complexions. However that was managed, they had no idea.  
"Gingka, hey, wake up!" Zyro called to the redhead as he knelt down in front of him, followed by Maru, Madoka, and Shinobu, who knelt down around him as well.  
Without thinking, Zyro placed a hand gently on Gingka's shoulder and started to try and shake him awake - only the contact was enough to make him visibly flinch, almost spasming, before he opened his eyes almost in a near panic that only seemed to last a view waking seconds.  
Zyro almost immediately retracted his hand in shock at the redhead's unconscious reaction, and settled it back down on the floor beside him.  
"Gingka!.." Madoka said softly, a grateful look on her face as the redhead slowly sat up where he was, "Thank god, you're okay.."

"For the most part, yeah..." The redhead said wearily, rubbing his head a bit.  
"Well, you seem to be doing pretty good, since your skin's back to normal." Kira pointed out, which almost immediately drew Gingka's attention. The Pegasus blader looked at him for a second (with two golden-brown eyes), before raising his left arm to look at it, to confirm that what Kira said was true.  
He seemed surprised to find that it was - then again, all of them had found it fairly surprising, so it was no wonder that he especially would.  
"Well... Okay then." He said almost breathlessly, his eyes glancing around a bit, "Should I bother asking where we are exactly?"

"I think we were kinda hoping that _you_ could answer that." Kite answered, "Since this did happen just after Alcorin seemed to break from you saying that other name.."  
Gingka sweat-dropped with a sheepish look.  
"Are you blaming this on me?" He asked sheepishly, which caused a few of them to sweat-drop as well.  
"No, Gingka, we're not.." Madoka assured him.

"Maybe a little..." Maru muttered softly.

Madoka elbowed her softly.  
Gingka just smiled at that.  
Madoka then looked at her seriously again, concern written on her face.  
"Well, I say we're gonna try and find a way out of here." The brunette said, voicing nearly everyone's earlier thought that they had already had, "Benkei can carry you again if you want." She gestured back to the purple-haired man, who nodded in approval.  
Gingka simply shook his head.  
"No thanks, I think I might be able to stand on my own." He said, sounding at least a bit confident in his abilities. They all looked at him a little warily, wondering if that really was so, considering that last time he hadn't been able to move his legs all that well, from what they could see.  
"Well, okay.." Madoka said a little hesitantly, before quickly standing up (followed by Maru), and offering a hand down to the redhead.  
Gingka gratefully took it, and, surprisingly enough, she didn't to assist him too much in standing. The redhead was able to get up on his feet fairly okay, but did stumble a bit once he got onto his feet.  
Madoka, Zyro, and Shinobu were there to assure that he didn't fall, and it only took a few moments before he managed to maintain his balance again, and stood on his own.

"Yup, looks like falling through floors and supposedly traveling to different dimensions really does heal all wounds." Ren inquired lightheartedly, and all of them sweat-dropped at her statement.  
"Yeah, sure, Ren..." Takanosuke said sheepishly.  
After that, they all regrouped, and gathered in a small circle, trying to devise what their plan would be.  
"Okay, so, how are we planning on getting out of his place?" Takanosuke asked, glancing around once again as they had all done many times from sheer awe of it, "We don't really know anything about this place."

"Which also means we don't know if there's actually an exit at all." Kira pointed out, being apart of the more practical section of the group.  
"Well, there _should_ be." Ren said pointedly, "If you can get into a place, than there has to be a way out of it. Somewhere..."  
Madoka nodded in agreement.  
"Ren has a point." The brunette suggested, "We know we got here from falling through the floor back up there,-" She gestured up to the ceiling, even though it really wasn't anything but a ceiling made of the crystal that everything else was made of, "-so I'm going to assume that our only way out might be going up. And I really don't think we have anywhere else to go other than to those stairs over there."  
All of them glanced over towards the stairs on the far side of the room, which were, indeed, the only thing leading too and from the room. All of them looked back at each other again.  
"Yes, well, I feel like that might have a chance of ending badly." Kira, once more, pointed out.  
"Everything has a chance of ending bad." Shinobu responded, which was most definitely true, "Besides, I don't see any other options."  
To that, Kira said nothing.  
"Yeah, I think that probably settles it." Zyro said with a slightly nervous glance at the two of them. All of them looked around at each other, and they all seemed to be in fair agreement. Madoka then spoke, and said, "Alright then, let's go-"

 **"...Brother..."**

The moment that soft voice, as quiet as a mouse, delicate, fragile, small, suddenly rang through the hall, all of them froze, and they all saw Gingka's eyes pulsate and glow that familiar red that he had been born with.  
That voice did not echo, but it lingered upon all of them. No one even dared to move for a moment, all eyes drawn to Gingka, his face almost blank, and eyes that menacing red that was far scarier on him than it had been on Alcorin.  
The redhead then turned slightly and looked towards the staircase, staring.

"Gingka?" Zyro questioned, looking at the older blader with as much earnest as the rest of them. Everyone of the left side of him all saw his eyes fade back to their original golden-brown color, and Madoka breathed out softly, feeling all the nerves in her body going off.  
"W-was..." Ren started, looking from the staircase to Gingka, "Was that...?"  
Without looking at any of them, Gingka nodded.  
"Yeah." He said in confirmation, "It is."  
He sounded as if he suddenly knew everything that was going on here, and, judging by the voice, the call, that they had just heard, they wouldn't doubt that he just might.  
Without saying anything further, Gingka turned fully and started walking over towards the staircase. All of them looked at him in slight confusion for a moment, and a few glances were passed around between them before they all hurried to keep up with the redhead.

So they followed him, up the stairs, and into the corridor beyond it, and into the many other corridors that followed after. There were places where the road split, and left several choices, but they all trusted Gingka as he went down different passageways, never knowing where the other halls lead to. They kept following him, though they had no idea for how long, and the entire time he said nothing.  
He seemed intent on only one thing, and a few of them had a feeling they knew what that thing was.  
Now they followed him up a long staircase, and a few of them found themselves fairly winded after all the climbing they had done, and, finally, came to yet another hall. Only this one, however, had a wall just 8 meters in, in the direct middle of the floor, though with space to walk around on either side of it.  
Somehow, this room seemed to hold a great foreboding that none of them were able to put their fingers on - however, it didn't feel bad... It felt almost _good_.  
Once more, all of them followed Gingka as he walked directly towards the wall in front of them, and, before any of them could say anything to him, they all watched as an arched doorway suddenly  
opened up for him, something that had not been there before.  
Gingka, somehow, seemed entirely unphased.  
Hesitantly, all of them followed him through the archway, and when they did they noticed that they had come out on a side where the wall they had just seen was whole, with no ways around it from any way. It was then that Gingka stopped walking, which confused all of them.

"Gingka?" Madoka questioned, coming up beside the redhead, "Are you okay?"  
She saw the sorrowful look on his face, but he did not look at her, and she then followed his gaze, as did all of them.  
A ring of gasps echoed from all of them.  
There, at the end of the room - not even 10 meters away - sat a boy.  
No, not a boy, because he seemed to be older than that of who they had seen with Ryo - nevertheless, it was easy to see that it was the same person, only much different. He sat slumped forward, head bowed, in a chair made of the same blue, white, purple crystal that everything else was made of, his indigo-blue hair long and spread out all under him and over the sides of where he sat. He wore nothing but a long, plain brown gown, almost like a nightgown but with no design, which went down far enough to cover his feet from view. It was hard to tell he was even alive, because he wasn't moving, but the color in his skin was the only thing that depicted that he still lived.  
After a moment was standing and staring, all of them followed Gingka over to the man in the chair, until the redhead stood just a foot away, looking down at the near limp form of his younger brother calmly, a type of serenity on his face that none of them could ever remember seeing for a long time, or even remembered at all.  
One thing that they all managed to notice, now that they were this close, was the dozens of tiny strings that lay broken and snapped all around the younger twin.  
None of them understood this all too much, but Gingka did. And when he spoke, it was unlike anything that they had ever heard from him.  
"Brother..." Gingka spoke softly, though his voice seemed to echo loudly in the hall, almost mimicking the same call that they had all heard earlier. The other twitched slightly, and his head slowly lifted, hesitantly, as though he was afraid to actually look up and see what or who was in front of him.  
Gingka waited, patient.  
Slowly, the other lifted his head to look at Gingka, his own golden-brown eyes half-lidded and blank - he looked almost lifeless.  
How long had he been here for?  
How long had he been like this?  
To think about that was unsettling, and even more so disturbing... However, all of those thoughts were whisked away as they all saw Gingka offer out his left hand to his younger brother, a symbolism of which they now understood.  
"I'm sorry I'm late..." Gingka said in apology.  
Despite his apologizing, he could feel that his younger brother didn't care - there was no need for apology.

The other seemed to struggle for a moment, but he managed to lift his right hand - the opposite of his proper handedness - and reached out towards Gingka's outstretched hand. He shook, not terribly, but still shook. However, he still reached out to him, and it felt like the most surreal moment possible. If they had not seen all the things they had before now, none of them may have believed that it _was_ indeed real.  
With a gentleness that seemed so otherworldly, the two of them slid their hands together, and both of them held on with the hands that had once been connected at birth.  
Almost immediately after, Gingka's grip tightened by the slightest bit, his eyes widening quickly and calmly all the same, and both golden-brown irises pulsating and glowing red - but this time it was on _his_ command.  
The other felt that sudden jolt, felt the almost overwhelming surge of sensation that radiated from his brother's skin, and his eyes widened as they too pulsated and glowed, identical to Gingka's own.  
As suddenly as that happened the world of crystal around them, as though it were all merely made of thin glass, cracked from the exact middle point of the wall behind the blue-haired man, appearing so suddenly as if they had just been whisked into existence, appearing like a complex web of lines. Then it all shattered, an outward force almost smashing against it, and they were all met with a light that was perhaps brighter than the sun as shards of luminous glass flew past them all, disappearing into the light.  
Due to the brightness, all of them save for the twins raised their arms to cover their eyes, and felt it was the light washed over and almost consumed them in its warm embrace.  
For a moment a few of them feared that this was death, brought to them under strange circumstances.  
However, they were proven supposedly wrong once they all felt the light around them fade, and they slowly lifted their gazes to find that they were now left in a world made purely, entirely, of the ethereal colors that the crystal they had previously been surrounded by was made of.  
Where they were was hardly a space, but yet they still stood on something solid, were still separate from the background, but were somehow almost interlocked with everything else.

Several gasps were elicited from many of them, but it wasn't because of this - it was because of the two brothers that stood in front of them all, the one they actually knew with his back to them as he faced his younger brother, and the other facing him with his front faced towards them. But they were not as they originally had been.  
No, they had looked different, they had looked physically human before, and they still mostly did - save for the fact that neither of them had any pigment to them, other than the crimson, non-reflective eyes that had, forever, been identical beneath their human skin. Their hair, as white as their skin that was adorned with black markings all over their bodies, had seemingly grown out within seconds, reaching down to drag on the floor behind one and float just above it around his legs on the other.  
Whether the not the two of them were aware that the rest of them were there was unclear, for they seemed only focused on each other in the few moments of silence that stood between them.  
Only when there was nothing but the silence around all of them did one of them finally speak - and the one who spoke was Alcor-... No.  
Minoru.

"Brother..." He said in an almost forlorn greeting, his voice soft, so much softer, more gentle, than Alcorin's could have ever been.  
In response, Gingka said nothing.  
His expression was calm, almost abnormally calm, and Minoru seemed to understand his silence - or at least suppose that he did.  
"I'd never thought we'd have to end up meeting like this..." The younger twin continued, "I would've rather it be under much different circumstances, but I suppose that can't be helped. I'm grateful that you came here, though, although it wasn't really for me..." An expression of guilt formed on his face, and he looked down more towards the ground, "I'm so sorry for all of this... For everything that I've done to you, and your friends. You're here because of me, and I'm sorry for that.."  
Still, Gingka said nothing, and continued to look at him with an unreadable expression. Minoru sighed through his nose, and continued.  
"I always tried to be as strong as I could, tried to do everything right, like my uncle always wanted..." He said, and looked up slightly, though not fully, "I _tried_ , I really did. But I always managed to screw up eventually. I tried to suppress Alcorin as much as I could, but I was always too weak compared to him..." His gaze fell downwards again, "...Or you... I don't know you. At all... But I know enough about you to know that you're a good person.."  
Still, Gingka said nothing.  
Minoru looked up again, his crimson eyes forlorn, sorrowful, guilty.  
"You've done things that most people would think are only in fairy-tales and books." He said, "You've done _great_ things, things that no one can compare with. You've fought to protect your world, because that's what you believe in, what you care for... You're the last person who would deserve _anything_ like what I've done. And I understand that you hate me for it, and so would anyone else who's known me... I've hurt the people you care about... _A lot_... And I know that I can never really apologize for that, so it's fine if you can't forgive me..." The tears, translucent, pearl-like, gathered on his white-tinted eyelashes, but he visibly fought against the urge to let them fall, "I _never_ wanted to hurt them... To hurt _you_.. And I know that you - no one - could ever forgive me for any of the things I've done... But that's fine.." The younger wiped his eyes on his wrist, and refused to look up.  
Still, Gingka said nothing, and neither did anyone else.  
"So, it's fine.." Minoru said sorrowfully, though more calm this time, "You deserve better than I ever could... Because you're still a good person, no matter what anyone says. You have people who love you, people who care about you... Family, friends... Them, especially.." He gestured back to the rest of them standing behind the redhead (who wasn't really a redhead at the moment), "You still have so much more to live for. So... You can deal with me as you see fit.. You can say anything you want, and it'll be fine.. I don't care what happens to me, because it doesn't matter.." Almost shamefully, Minoru looked down to the ground, his hair - longer than they had ever seen it - falling around his face, "I'm just glad that, out of the two of us, at least you got to be happy..."

With that, Minoru fell silent, and he dared not look at Gingka's face. There was a long moment of silence, and all of them, save for Minoru, looked towards the older twin with mixed expression.  
What would he say?  
Why hadn't he said anything so far?  
What was he thinking?  
What would he do?  
Clearly, Minoru seemed to believe to know what he was thinking, judging from all he had just said - however, all the resent the hate that he would expect to see in Gingka's face (of which he wasn't looking at) was not there.  
Instead, the redhead frowned slightly and brought his eyebrows together.

"...What makes you think that I hate you?" He asked unexpectedly, causing Minoru to suddenly look up, confused. All of them looked at Gingka, all of confused and wondering.  
All except for Takanosuke, who realized that he recognized this scene.  
"W-what?..." Minoru questioned timidly, suddenly confused at the question.

"You seem to be pretty convinced that I hate you for all of this." Gingka clarified.  
Minoru continued to look at him, wondering what exactly he was getting at.  
"You're not _entirely_ wrong, though..." Gingka said, in a voice that suggested there was something more, "True, they were hurt a great deal, and I hate the mere thought of it... After all, they're my friends - people who have always been there for me and me for them -, and I love them more than anything..." Minoru looked down slightly, and Gingka's expression softened more than it already had, "But you're still my brother."  
Minoru's eyes widened, and he looked at Gingka again, crimson eyes wide in disbelief and confusion. As though he really couldn't believe that Gingka could actually say they were related after all that had been done to him - all that _he_ had done to him...  
Gingka saw his confused face, and simply smiled.  
"Whatever you're thinking, I don't hate you." Gingka went on, "Yes, there _is_ someone I hate for all of this... But it's not you. _You_ didn't do any of this, and I think you know that, even if you don't fully believe it."

"But-"

"Minoru." Gingka stated more than said, halting the other's sentence, "That's your name, isn't it?"  
Minoru looked confused, but he nodded.  
"Last I remember..." Gingka continued, still smiling in that warm way of his, "...The one that I've seen and known is named Alcorin. I know who _he_ is. But I _don't_ know _you_. We've just met. And, personally, I prefer to see who people really are before actually deciding to judge them..."  
Minoru's eyes widened, almost in disbelief.  
"But..." The younger began, "How can you just say that?... Alcorin _is_ me, we both know that, so..."  
Gingka just shook his head.  
"No, he's really not." He said as though it were the most simple thing ever, "From what I'm seeing, and from what I've seen, you two are pretty different... Same in body, maybe, but definitely not in mind." The older twin tilted his head to the side a bit, a forlorn smile on his face, "I'm pretty sure I remember him saying the same thing, too."

Minoru fell silent, adverting his eyes, unsure of what to say.  
Noting his silence, Gingka kept speaking.  
"I don't know what happened all those years ago, when Alcorin threw you aside and took control, so I really can't say that much on it..." He stated, "But I don't think that it was your fault.. And whatever else happened after that and before this wasn't either. Frankly, I don't care about any of it. That doesn't tell me who you are."  
The tears on the edges of Minoru's eyes were very evident, but he refused to let them fall, and refused to look at his older brother at all.  
Gingka nodded, and, softly, spoke again.  
"The point is..." He started, "I'm saying that I'm not going to just abandon you."  
This time, Minoru did look at him, a shocked look on his face, filled with disbelief - but with admiration all the same.  
Several of the others looked at Gingka as well, all wondering where exactly this was going. Zyro was, among a few of them, one who felt nervous. Any other emotions at the moment were confusing, but that was the one that stood out the most.

"I've met a lot of people over the years," Gingka went on when no one said anything, "and I've seen the different faces all of them have, whether good or bad... And, personally, I never thought for a second that any of them could have ever deserved to just be abandoned and left alone.. I've never thought that about anyone - even when I hated Ryuga, and Rago, and Doji, I never pictured any of them as being alone, per say... Well, maybe once or twice, but that's besides the point." Minoru almost chuckled at that, "Either way... Being alone is not a fate that I imagine anyone having to go through. Least of all you. So, I'm going to let you be alone, even if it means that I have to go down with you."  
Gasps suddenly rang out at this, and most of them almost couldn't believe what they were hearing.  
"Gingka-!" Madoka started to stay, but stopped once Gingka looked back at her, a calm and forlorn expression on his face.  
She looked like she wanted to say something else, and she _did_ , but she refrained herself from doing so. So she backed down, although she looked very pained and reluctant about it, because she knew everything that face said.  
'Just trust me'.  
Zyro looked at her a moment, concerned, before looking back to the twins, and seeing Minoru stand there, shaking his head.  
"N-no.." He said, stuttering, "I-I can't ask you to do that-"

"You're not asking anything of me." Gingka said warmly, that smile back on his face, "I'm saying that because I _mean it_... I've had people all my life. I've always had someone there, whether friends or family... But, from what I'm getting, you've never really had anyone."  
Minoru adverted his eyes.  
"Well, yeah..." The younger agreed hesitantly, "But... I'm used to being alone... So it doesn't matter..."  
A sorrowful look put itself on Gingka's face, though there was no sign of pity.  
"...Just because you're used to it," The redhead said softly, "Doesn't mean you _like_ it."  
To that, Minoru said nothing.  
Gingka sighed through his nose, and then spoke again.  
"Listen, I don't care what you say about yourself, or about what anyone else says about you.." He said, "We're twins, we always have been. For twenty years I let you down, because I was never there. And that one chance where _might_ have been able to, I didn't take... So I don't want to make that same mistake again. And we both know that if it's only you that goes..." Gingka's eyes narrowed slightly in understanding, "I will never be able to follow you."  
Again, Minoru said nothing to that, because he knew that it was true as much as Gingka did.  
"Besides..." Gingka continued with a smile, "Whichever fate we get... I _would_ like to get to know you better."

Whether or not it was right at that moment that he realized Gingka truly wasn't going to leave him alone, Minoru wasn't entirely too sure, but he realized it nonetheless. It took a moment before he was truly able to even process that, marveling at the fierce determination that Gingka held to assure that he wouldn't be alone anymore even after all the loneliness that he had known his whole life, no matter which way they went.  
He had seen and heard things of his brother while trapped within this crystal prison of his conscious, things that showed and proved that he was truly a wonderful, thoughtful, courageous person.  
But anything that people had said was _nothing_ compared to seeing it for yourself, and it was truly a sight.  
Gingka looked on at him with a warm smile, bringing light and warmth to eyes that naturally reflected none, and, no matter how much he searched, Minoru could find no such hint of hate or anger in that face that he had originally expected.  
Slowly, his shoulders slumped, and he looked sadly past his older brother at the others standing behind him. They saw this, of course, the silent apology on his face evident, the tears in his eyes slowly beginning to drip down his face.  
It was plain to all of them, even Takanosuke, that this was most definitely not the same man they had known all this time - this was someone much different. Someone who actually felt guilt, and regret.

"So?..." Gingka asked softly, and Minoru looked up at him to see him put his left hand out, palm facing outward, a small, off-white scar just barely visible, "... Is that a yes, little brother?"

Minoru heard himself make a noise that was half an inhale and half a sob, and, suddenly, he was grateful. Almost reluctantly, Minoru lifted his right hand in turn, and put his own palm against Gingka's, where the older graciously interlocked their fingers.  
Gingka smiled warmly, and Minoru sobbed, and the former redhead gently pulled him into a hug, and which Minoru accepted by burying his face in Gingka's chest ( _skin as smooth as glass_ ), and sobbing quietly.  
It was a surreal sort of scene, a heartbreaking one, of which even Kira could agree to, and it was something that none of them could say anything too. For what could've been a long time or a few seconds, it was a private moment between two brothers, and all of them felt it would be wrong to intrude.  
But only after a few moments did a bright light suddenly appear in front of them, causing them all to either have to cover their eyes or squint for a few moments before it finally faded again. When it did, they found both Gingka and Minoru facing all of them, standing side by side.  
Gingka still that forlorn smile on his face, while Minoru had his eyes lowered to the ground, and one arm folded across his chest.

"G-Gingka..." Madoka said softly, now that she - all of them - were finally able to get at good look at both of them.  
There wasn't much to tell, however, the markings on his body were identical to Minoru's, although the colors were inverted, and eyes that very familiar red that they had known for quite a while, but with a much warmer quality to them. Despite the lack of pigment, and half-inhuman appearance, that face and that smile were still the same.  
That, Madoka was most thankful for.  
At the speaking of his name, Gingka just smiled, an almost apologetic look on his face that was painful to see.  
"Hey.." He said softly, "I guess this isn't exactly what we planned on, huh..."

"G-Gingka, why..." Madoka began, though wasn't entirely sure what to say, "Why would you...?"  
Gingka smiled and shrugged his shoulders.  
"You know me..." He said with a sigh, "You once said that I'm too kind for my own good sometimes, and you were right... But... Not this time, though." Gingka glanced over towards the younger of the two of them, who wasn't looking at anyone, before looking over at all of them again.  
"Maybe it's a bit impulsive." He admitted, "And I'm sorry for that, but I can only really ask for you guys to at least try and understand."  
Nobody really knew what to say to any of this, and several glances were exchanged between a few of them. No one said anything to each other, however, for either lack of anything to say, the feeling of wrongness of protesting, or just not wanting to say anything (This mainly being Kira's case). Takanosuke was the only one who stood there and said nothing for the fact that he recognized this - he had seen this scene before, as he had several others.  
"Zyro." Gingka said suddenly, drawing Zyro's attention, as well as the rest of them.  
Zyro looked up at the taller blader, who looked at him with an almost unreadable expression, but which had a smile nonetheless.  
"I have something to ask of you..." Gingka said, and his smile faded for a moment, "But you aren't going to like it."  
Zyro bit his tongue nervously, uneasy, but nodded nonetheless.  
Seeing this, Gingka went on - almost reluctantly.  
"I didn't want any of this to happen to you - or to any of you.." The older twin said, "I wouldn't have ever pictured it, and I'm sorry that I lied to you for as long as I did... If you're mad, then I get it. But I want to ask just one thing of you, and I'll never ask for anything from you ever again." Those last few words made the Ifraid blader twitch, but he continued to listen, "Somehow, you seem to understand a lot of this better than most people, and overall I'm not too surprised... You've grown up a lot way too fast, and I'm sorry for that - but I know that maybe that will make it easier for you to maybe accept what I'm asking for... I gave you a part of my power so that it could help you win against Kira, you remember that?" Zyro nodded, and Kira looked at both of them pointedly for a moment, though didn't say anything, "Well.. I guess I sort of gave you a little more than I meant to, and more than you could've bargained for. But, I think you might be able to manage it, as you're clearly able to manager your other power... But somehow I don't think I have to explain to you what I mean."  
Zyro adverted his eyes briefly, glancing over towards Minoru, his expression suddenly calmer than it had been.  
Yes.  
He knew exactly what Gingka was talking about, so he had no need to explain it - because Minoru, his dearest old friend, had already told him so. He had told him when they had been in purgatory with Ryo.  
Not aloud, of course, but they had always had a way of understanding each other in those dreams where only the two of them existed, almost full conversations through simple gestures and looks that said more than they could ever really say. A type of secret language of theirs. Even all these years later, under much different circumstances than the simple dreams that they both knew, that connection of theirs had still remained true.  
So Zyro had understood it when Minoru had looked at him, seeming without meaning, supposedly never finishing what he had been saying - only he had, but to Zyro alone. He had understood, but that didn't mean it took it easily.  
Finding out you were the accidental creation of a child demi-god wasn't exactly a thing you just brushed off.  
Gingka smiled softly in understanding and nodded before he went on speaking.

"I thought so..." He said softly, "What I'm asking for isn't easy, and I know you'll probably refuse... I at least want you to try to understand, if you can. But whatever you do, I won't hold it against you, and I know that you'll believe it to be right.." Gently, Gingka brought both of Zyro's hands up and held them in his, looking straight into blue eyes that he should never had lied too, "So... I want you to destroy us." Zyro gasped silently in comparison to the many others that rang through the air a lot more loudly than his, "Destroy us with the power that I gave you."

Zyro was at a complete loss for words, for there really wasn't anything he could say.  
How could he do that?  
How could Gingka ask him too?  
And to _him_ no less...  
He could feel the stares all around him, boring him from all around, and it suddenly felt very claustrophobic. But the almost overwhelming sensation that radiated from Gingka's skin ( _something he had felt before_ ) and the slight hidden glance that he could just barely see from Minoru somehow made it just a bit better.  
In truth, it would've been a much harder decision had he not heard Gingka's other words, that went silent to everyone else but him.  
It was still a hard choice to make, but his heart was lightened by those words, and It was only then did he know what he would do, because he had a choice in this too - and, hopefully, they wouldn't be angry.  
So Zyro nodded his head, and then looked up into Gingka's eyes, which were locked onto his.  
While he himself wasn't entirely sure what to do, another part of him was more than familiar with this, and he felt his eyes widen and lock on to something in Gingka's, and in turn Minoru's, before he felt them pulsate and tingle almost uncomfortably.  
And, suddenly, everything around them was gone, with Gingka's unspoken words to him ringing in his ears.

 _"It's your choice Zyro... It always was."_...

* * *

Everyone suddenly opened their eyes ( _again, in Kira's case 'eye'_ ) as though they had done nothing but simply all close their eyes in unison, and once more found themselves exactly where they had been, Beys spinning and clashing in the midst of battle. All of them were as they had originally been, save for Gingka, who sat there in the same form they had just seen him in.  
And he sat there and stared at his brother across the hall from there, who stood there, also in the form that had always secretly been under their skin, with an almost confused and frightened look on his face.  
"What the hell just happened?" Ren asked, glancing around along with several of the others, who were just as confused and half-disoriented.  
"I dunno, but I don't think we were dreaming..." Kite said almost breathlessly, noticing both Gingka and Minoru, as they all soon did.  
"Zyro?" Shinobu questioned, looking towards his best friend, who seemed to be the only one who wasn't looking as confused as they were - he was just staring forward almost aimlessly.  
The other younger bladers looked towards him as well, as though for answers, but Zyro didn't say anything to them - not directly anyway.  
It only took a moment before his expression, having almost been dazed-looking, returned to normal, and threw his arm out in from of you.  
"Ifraid!" He cried out, and said Bey heard the call.  
"Yeah, great response." Kira said with a roll of the eye, before he too followed suit, "Bahamoote!"  
"Phoenix!" Ren cried out once they all began to at least partially understand.

"Salamander!"

"Leviathan!"

"Orochi!"

"Bull!"

All 7 Beys heard the calls of their Bladers, and immediately rushed forward towards Bellerophon, now stationary, all them glowing fiercely in their respective auras as the spirits trapped within appeared.  
The spirit of Bellerophon appeared as well, though it was motionless, all of its defenses down - just like its blader.  
"Get behind it and rush it!" Zyro practically commanded to his friends, "Try and expose the top of it so I get at it!"

"Right!" Several of his fellow bladers said in agreement, before Zyro gave the command for Ifraid to pull back slightly while the other 6 Beys on the field rushed ahead and curved around the Bey that still didn't move, unlike it originally had.

"Phoenix!"

"Salamander!"

"Bull!"

"Bahamoote!"

"Orochi!"

"Leviathan!"

All 6 face bolts of all 6 Beys pulsated strongly, and they all created an incomplete ring around the iron-clad warrior of a Bey, before they all rushed it at the same time to catch it in the middle.  
Surprisingly, it worked, and all 6 Beys smashed into it without said Bey protesting, all 6 spirits wrapping around the iron-clad warrior of which did not protest.

"Get under it, Bull!"

"You too, Phoenix!"

Both of said Beys, which were the 2 directly behind the opposing Bey, spun as hard as they could, ducking slightly to try and reveal more of Bellerophon's top as the other 4 Beys supported from the sides in making sure they could do so.  
The tipping of the opposing Bey was evident among all of them, it gave more easily than it probably would have under any other circumstances, and the royal blue spirit itself collapsed onto it's knees with all the others surrounding it and keeping it in check.  
It was then that Zyro saw the opening that Bellerophon - or Minoru - seemed at least half willing to give, and immediately thrust his hand out in front of him.

"Go now, Ifraid!" The raven cried, "Special Move! Burning Uppercut!"

Ifraid's face bolt pulsated visibly, and soon the Bey was engulfed in roaring flames as it dashed head on towards Bellerophon, who lay pinned down upon it's own will, and vulnerable by it's own say.  
Minoru saw what was coming long before it happened, and he stood there, shoulders shaking, a look of quiet fear on his face that he couldn't prevent from feeling. He almost took a step back, considered running, shook from the fear of not knowing what exactly was next (whether life or death). But then he felt a hand wrap itself around his, holding tightly as they once had years ago but had been much, much to small to remember, and he felt himself calm down.  
He slowly stopped shaking, anchored himself down to where he stood, and faced head on whatever Zyro had given them - and even though there wasn't anyone beside him, the hand in his was still more real than anything.  
In that moment Ifraid then slammed head on into Bellerophon's top, and the impact immediately resulted in an explosion that shifted mostly in Minoru's direction. Everyone covered their eyes and steadied themselves against the force of it, all the while seeing Minoru getting thrown back off of his feet.  
Though, truly, the younger of the twins didn't seem to care.  
It took a few moments before the near blinding light of spiritual fire died down, and when it did all of them immediately looked towards the opposite end of the room to see what had become of Minoru, most of them expecting him to not be there, or something of the sort. However, he was there, laying just at the top of the stairs, seemingly unconscious, the colors that they had not seen in a long while restored to him. However, they were unable to tell whether he was actually alive.  
Gingka was the one who had never barely ever shifted throughout all of it, and now stared just as he had in the direction of his younger brother, blankly, calmly.  
Then he collapsed to the side, the form of which he had originally been born in practically evaporating from around him. By the time he hit the ground (which, of course, drew their attention), he looked as they had always previously known him, no longer split between two faces.

"Gingka!" Madoka exclaimed in worry, and immediately rushed and knelt down at his side, along with quite a few others.  
They all knew what her thoughts were if Gingka's last words to Zyro had been anything to say by it, and they watched as the brunette carefully looked over to him to see what she so dreaded was true.  
Maru stood nervously behind her teacher, fearing the worst, and knowing that it would break the woman's heart if it were so - in truth, it would break her own as well.

"Is he..." Eight began to ask, but trailed off almost immediately, afraid to say the word that they all knew floated heavily in the air.  
The silence of those few moments were near terrifying, and nobody said a word or dared to move, dared to breathe... But, soon enough, they were surprised when Madoka uttered a heavy, shaky sigh of unimaginable relief.  
"No..." She said, "He's okay!.."

"Oh thank god." Ren said in a breathy voice as she released all the air she had been holding, which could be said the same for everyone else.  
"Thank you!" Benkei exclaimed loudly to the ceiling, which several of them sweat-dropped about.  
"O-okay..." Maru said slowly, stuttering a bit, "But... How?" Suddenly, all eyes went to Zyro, who stood apart from them, exactly where he had been.  
The raven looked around at the others, before awkwardly shrugging his shoulders.  
"Uh... Yeah... I kinda didn't listen.." He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.  
"But didn't he specifically ask you too?..." Ren asked.  
"Yeah, he did..." Zyro said, looking off to the side, "But... I couldn't do it.. And I think he might've known that, so... I saved them instead."

"Yeah, can I ask _how_ , exactly?" Kira asked almost impatiently.  
"Uhh..." Zyro stuttered slightly, scratching his cheek lightly, "It's... Kinda weird." All of them sweat-dropped at that.  
"Oh, you don't say..." Ren said flatly.  
"Well..." Madoka started, smiling softly at the Ifraid Blader, "You can explain later when we get back to Metal Bey City. I think it'd probably be a better idea to work on getting out of here for now."

"Yeah, but we don't know where the exit is." Shinobu pointed, "We kind of just got dropped here, and this place is kind of a maze."

"It could forever to find a way out!" Eight exclaimed to punctuate the point that Shinobu was making.  
"Um, actually..." Takanosuke spoke up almost shyly, drawing everyone else's attention to him, "Me and S-Sakyo found the door to this place when we got here. It... _Might_ take a bit, but I could probably find it again."

"If you could, that would be a huge help." Madoka said gratefully, and Takanosuke nodded, only whipping his eyes briefly after the fact. After that, Benkei picked up Gingka's limp form and took to carrying him as originally planned, and they all crossed the room half-way to retrieve their Beys.  
Almost expectantly, Bellerophon was nowhere to be found.  
"That kinda did a number on her.." Ren said mostly to herself as she picked up Phoenix and looked it over before placing it in the carrying case on her belt.  
"Ours too." Kite said in agreement as both he and Eight got theirs.  
"Don't worry, me and Maru can fix them up later." Madoka said with a reassuring smile, "I don't doubt that you'll all probably need it after that."

"What about him?" Kira asked suddenly, gesturing over to the unconscious man that lay at the top of the stairs. From what they could tell, he was breathing, so that was a good sign.  
Madoka looked at the blue-haired man for a moment, a conflicted on her face that was thinking all sorts of different things.  
"Well, we can't just... Leave him... Right?" Maru asked hesitantly, looking up towards her teacher. Madoka didn't return her gaze, but instead glanced over at Zyro.  
The raven looked at her in turn, an already set and determined expression on his face.  
"We're not leaving him..." The Ifraid Blader said resolutely, "... I don't wanna separate them again."  
At that, they all immediately knew what the two choices were.  
Take both, or leave both - and it wasn't a hard decision to make.  
"I can probably carry him." Kite offered once it was clear what they were doing, "I think he's small enough for me to manage."  
They were all able to agree on that, and soon enough the spiky-haired brunette was able to get the younger twin onto his back fairly easily so that he could carry him.  
With that, they all set off, and left the room behind to its dust and darkness and insects. They backtracked all the way that they had come, a few of them remembering certain parts while others recognized different parts, but still making their way through all the same.  
Soon enough they came once again to the hall where they had met Takanosuke, and that was where they let him take over as leader of the group.  
He did so quietly, solemnly, however, and lead them down the staircase that he had previously come up in a panic, surprised at how much lighter the air was down there than it had been when he had been running.  
He was even more surprised when he found Griffin laying at the foot of the staircase, as though it had been waiting for him.

"How did that get there?" Shinobu asked curiously once the curly-haired blonde picked it up.  
"I dunno..." Takanosuke said weakly in response, before continuing on, suddenly feeling sick at the reminder of what exactly was at the end of these halls.  
But still, they all went on, even though it took a bit with the blonde having to try and remember exactly which way he had come from.  
But, eventually, they came to the final hall that lead into the room from which the blonde had fled, and it was visibly noticeable of the way he stiffened up, tensed, breathed uneasily. From what they had heard from Alcorin, they could only guess why, and did whatever they could to brace themselves for what they would see in the room up ahead.  
Eight and Maru were ready to cover their eyes if they had too (and undoubtedly would), and Ren was doing a quiet breathing exercise in preparation so that she, hopefully, wouldn't end up vomiting - she had never really been too good with blood.  
Takanosuke, however, couldn't ever be prepared.

Finally, they all came through the doorway of the room, welcomed by the natural light of the glow-stone on the ceiling, and were immediately met with a shocking sight.  
They had expected blood, of course, but not _that_ much.

Blood lay splattered from what one spot on the floor, reaching several meters away, staining a good portion of the stone and indicating how hard the body ( _...body..._ ) had supposedly been slammed down on the floor, while there was more blood in a drying pool to where it had been supposedly left to bleed out whatever it had left. Other things littered the floor, things that were more than any of them could really handle to look at or describe (Maru had already turned and buried her face in Madoka's leg to cover her eyes, containing her quiet whimpers, while Eight took and stuffed Kite's coat in his face).  
Chunks of what looked like flesh, with damp hair attached, were scattered around from the impact spot, while white/red pieces and shards of... Something else... were also seen here and there.  
Beside the impact spot was another, separate pool of blood, seeming much fresher than the rest of it probably was, but caused by something unknown.  
The thing that got most of them, and made quite a few of them gag (Ren ended up throwing up after all, though she did it off to the side), was the smell. The acrid stench of death and blood and other things was overpowering, stale and fresh, ever lingering.  
Though, as shocking as all of it was, that was not the main point for their shock and confusion - because, aside from the blood and pieces of matter, the room was empty.


	37. Chapter 36 - Not The Same

Chapter 36 - Not The Same

* * *

It did take awhile, but, after some dead ends and a lot of walking around, they all managed to find their way out of the temple the same way that Sakyo and Takanosuke had originally come in.  
When they got out of the miniature rocky valley and out into the clearing, they were surprised to see the orange, yellow, purple, and light blue light of the sun starting to peak over the mountains in the distance, since they had not thought that they were really in there for that long, and even more surprised by the sound of a couple helicopters somewhere nearby. It didn't take long before they had realized that those had come for _them_ , for both helicopters had come into the clearing, one after the other.  
The man in the first helicopter had opened the door and shouted over the loud thunder of the propellers to Madoka, claiming that they had been sent by Tsubasa upon receiving a distress signal from Maru's watch. This was something that confused the small girl, since she had sent out nothing, and the device that she had had seemed unable to work within the mountain walls - she supposed that it could be an automatic thing that the satellite picked up anyway, but she wasn't too sure.  
Either way, the group split up into two separate groups for the two separate helicopters, and they soon found themselves being lifted off above the forest, above the trees and away from the mountain, back towards the home that most of them could safely say they had missed very much. None of the pilots ask questions about the two unconscious brothers, whether why they were so or who Minoru even was (since they almost undoubtedly knew who Gingka was), and simply lifted them on board and got out 2 stretchers for them. Madoka had informed one of the officers inside the chopper they were in about Gingka's current condition, and about the possibility of Minoru needing help as well, an the woman almost immediately called into the Metal Bey City Hospital to inform them of two incoming patients that they would be dropping off within a couple of short hours. She had then informed Madoka that both helicopters would be dropping them back off at WBBA headquarters, where Tsubasa would soon be to meet them. Madoka simply agreed with that, feeling more than glad about finally seeing Tsubasa again - in person, at least.  
Throughout the whole 2 and a half hours that it took for them to get back to Metal Bey City, neither Gingka or Minoru ever woke up nor even stirred, and they remained that way even as the chopper landed on top of Metal Bey City hospital and unloaded them there.  
Madoka, Zyro, Kite, Eight, and Benkei all watched them go, before they were soon lifted off into the air again and headed off towards WBBA headquarters. When they got there, the one helicopter that had been carrying the rest of the others had already arrived, and, sure enough, Tsubasa stood there with the rest of them, along with both Sichiro and Ayano - two workers that she was fairly familiar with -, waiting for them.  
The remaining five of them all got out as soon as the doors were opened, and Tsubasa came to meet them halfway, almost immediately pulling Madoka into an embrace which she was more than happy to return.

"I'm glad to see all of you are okay." Tsubasa said with a sigh of relief once both he and Madoka had pulled away, "I tried contacting you guys last night a few times, but you never answered... I was almost afraid something happened until I received that distress signal from Maru a little while ago."

"Yeah, sorry about that." The brunette apologized with a smile, "We would've called you back, but things got a little... Weird."

"Really weird, things got really weird." Kite corrected for her, and Madoka agreed on that.  
"Well, understandable I guess..." The silverette said, a strange looking suddenly crossing his face, " _Especially_ since a few of them-" He gestured back to the other younger bladers behind him, "-have been saying something about Gingka being _alive_ and... Having a brother?"  
Madoka's eyes widened for a moment, before she nodded. Of course, there was going to be a lot of explaining to do.  
Among _all_ of them...

* * *

Since the incident of what had happened with Alcorin in his office, Kyoya's condition had improved fairly well, and the doctors had informed the eldest Tategami sibling that anytime within the next couple of days, he would be allowed to be released from the hospital.  
Of course, that did come with the strict orders to not overly exert himself with his work, which did irritate him a bit. Now he was able to sit up in his hospital bed and walk away a bit just fine, and he had also been taken off all of the pain meds they had originally had him on, which was something he was eternally grateful for.  
Kakeru had been the one who had been managing most things back at TC headquarters in his brother's absence, and seemed to be doing exceedingly well in assuring that everything was still running almost as smoothly as it usually did (which could be iffy at times). Kyoya was proud of him for that, but decided to wait until he was discharged before to see things for himself before he actually gave his younger brother higher praise. And, hopefully, he would be able to check out fairly soon - the place was boring him, even with the couple books that he currently had on the beside table.  
He had already read through one of them out of the four, and was now about a quarter way through the second one, which, in turn, wasn't all too interesting.  
With his focus on the page and his hearing slightly tuned out so that he could focus better, he just barely noticed it when Kakeru walked into the room, and only saw him out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey, Kyoya." The younger greenette greeted, a slightly happier aura about him that the older did not fail to miss.  
"Hey." Kyoya greeted casually as his right hand assistant came up beside his bed, "You seem happier than usual. What's up?"  
Kakeru grinned softly before explaining.  
"I got a call from Director Otori this morning." The younger explained, "He said that Madoka and the others are back in Metal Bey City now. Turns out they were able to find Alcorin after all."  
Kyoya was surprised at this news, but was no less satisfied at hearing it - if it was what he hoped it was, it looked like he wouldn't be getting another visit from that psychopath anytime.  
"Good to hear." The Director said with a smile that was also half a smirk.  
"Oh, and that's it!" Kakeru said enthusiastically, though he paused for a moment in though before continuing, "Okay, it's gonna sounds kind of weird, but I _swear_ I'm telling the truth, alright?"

"Okay..." Kyoya said slowly, raising an eyebrow at his younger brother.  
"So after they were able to find where Alcorin was, it turns out that things didn't _exactly_ happen in the way we thought before." The greenette explained, "They _found_ Gingka. And not dead, either! He was alive."

"W-wait, what?" Kyoya stuttered slightly, looking at his younger brother as though he were half crazy.  
"Yeah, I know..." Kakeru sighed, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment, "I know it sounds really crazy, but Tsubasa was telling the truth, I know that... But not only was Gingka alive, but it turns out that he and that Alcorin guy were _brothers_ , apparently. They said that they brought them both back, and to not worry about Alcorin... Though, I'm too sure."

"Well then..." Kyoya said, leaning back on the pillows propped up behind him and setting his book down on the sheets covering his legs, "I guess, once I get out of here, I'm gonna have to organize a call or something with him, then. 'Cause I think I want some more details on that."

"I don't blame ya." Kakeru said with a smile, "He didn't really explain all too much, so I can't say anything more on it, but he sounded pretty truthful. I doubt that he'd joke about something like that..."  
Kyoya chuckled slightly.  
"Yeah, he's never been one for jokes." The elder Tataegami said reassuringly, "I'm just a little confused on how the hell Hagane's even alive. Or what the whole 'brother' thing is about... I'll be sure to look in on that with him."  
Kakeru nodded in agreement, and, after that, the conversation eventually went into how things were faring over at headquarters, with a few of the usual questions and answers from either of the two.  
But, even while most of his mind focused on that, the knowledge that he had previously received stuck itself firmly inside a part of Kyoya's head - the part where certain things would never leave him alone.  
He could only guess how the rest of them back in Metal Bey City were feeling after figuring that out. Needless to say, they were probably overjoyed.  
And he, too, found himself to be greatly relieved - looks like he would get another chance to win over Gingka's title after all...

* * *

Four days after they had arrived back in Metal Bey City, things weren't entirely as happy as one could probably imagine.  
The group had all gotten together on the first day back to begin explaining to Tsubasa that had happened in their week-long journey, and the silverette took it all in with an air of easiness, which they very well knew to be reasonable. After that, Madoka had also gotten Zyro to try and explain _how_ exactly he had 'saved' Gingka and Minoru, and what Gingka had meant by 'knowing what he meant'.  
The ginger-ravenette had explained with a little difficulty, but the others had listened regardless, no matter how far-fetched and unbelievable it sounded. Zyro had also admitted that he had a hard time believing to, and he still wasn't truly sure if he really did - all of them were thankful for the explanation, however, since it at least cleared a few things up, as troublesome and weird as it was.  
Within those next few days Tsubasa had arranged a small funeral for Sakyo, even though it couldn't necessarily be called a 'funeral', per say.  
Tsubasa had done the job of finding Sakyo's address - a small apartment on the north end of the city - and then sent Takanosuke to go and see if they could find his parents there; the blonde had figured that it would probably be better if they heard the news from him rather than anyone else. However, there had been no one there.  
Tsubasa had then decided to look a bit deeper, and found that Sakyo had lived alone, and seemingly had no contact with his parents at all. The only number that he had on his emergency contact list as an aunt who was filed down as living in Kyoto.  
However, they were unable to get ahold of her in all the 6 times they had tried.  
So, they went on and just had it by themselves - they had stood around a plain headstone with all the typical things listed - name, date of birth and date of death - upon it, and simply laid a few flowers of different varieties in front of a framed picture that Takanosuke had put there.  
It was a picture of Sakyo and him that he had taken in a surprise selfie, with the red-and-white-haired blader having taking up most of the picture from the way that the blonde had positioned the camera.  
It wasn't the best picture, and Takanosuke knew that, but it was the best he had. Ren had said that it was sweet, and well fitting of the two of them.

On the fourth day, Madoka had decided that that would be the day she went to finally visit Gingka in the hospital, and many of the younger bladers, consisting of Zyro, Ren, Kite, Eight, and Shinobu, were more than eager to join her to see how the redhead was doing. In truth, the brunette would've gone much sooner if she had been allowed too, but Tsubasa had informed her that the hospital had contacted him on the well-being of Gingka and said that it would be probably be best if nobody visited for at least 3-4 days.  
Reluctantly, the brunette had complied, but it didn't stop her from worrying. The same could be said for the rest of them as well.  
But now it had been those 3-4 days, so it was probably safe to assume that it was okayby now for them to go and see the man that they had been so worried about.  
They all checked in at the nurse's station down on the first floor, and, after a phone call to a doctor and the writing down of several things, the nurse there told them that they had permission to head up to the 5th floor - the psychiatric ward.  
The fact that they were being sent up there at all was greatly concerning, and Madoka asked if the nurse had indeed given them the correct place to go, but he said that he had, and that Doctor Amori would be waiting for them up there.  
So, anxious and worried, the seven of them all gathered in the elevator, and pressed the button for the 5th floor, although reluctantly.

The psychiatric ward seemed to have a naturally unsettling air to it, and seemed quite a bit bleaker than even the rest of the hospital did. It smelled strongly of medicine and vomit, and, further down the hall and a couple halls down, there could be heard distant screaming and crying and moaning and other noises that were less than comforting.  
Thankfully, they didn't have to go past any of these rooms to get to where they were told Gingka's room was, number 508, where they also found a man in a white coat and dark blue scrubs waiting for them with a clipboard in his hands.  
"Oh, hello." The man, presumably Doctor Amori, judging by the name-tag on his coat, greeted them, "You must be Madoka Amano, correct?"

"Uh, yes." Madoka answered.  
"Well, I'm Dr. Amori." The man said with a smile, outstretching a hand, which she shook, although stiffly, "I'm Mr. Hagane's doctor, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah, you too." Madoka said with a barely noticeable tremor in her voice, "Um... Is it alright if I ask why we're up here?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Dr. Amori said with a smile, "That's actually why I've come to meet you up here. Before you head in, there are a few things that I need to inform and warn you of with Mr. Hagane's... Condition."  
Madoka simply nodded her head for the doctor to go on, and the other younger bladers, and Maru, gathered around to hear as well. Dr. Amori looked down through his wire-rimmed glasses down to the clipboard in his hand.  
"Gingka was admitted to the hospital about 5 days ago after being dropped off here from a WBBA helicopter, along with another patient, who, as I understand, has a fairly close relation to him according to Director Otori." Dr. Amori began, "Out of the two of them, Gingka was the one that needed greater medical attention than Minoru did, as it was found that he was extremely malnourished, dehydrated, and with barely any physical function to his legs. So, he was treated for his undernourishment; we got some food and liquids into him through tubes while he was unconscious, and, other than his legs and a very mild infection in his esophagus that we were able to get rid of within a couple days, he was fine. Physically, at least."

"W-what do you mean?" Madoka asked, suddenly feeling more nervous than she originally had.  
"Well, it's not too easy to explain..." Dr. Amori said with some reluctance, "About 2 days after he was admitted, Mr. Hagane regained consciousness. He was disoriented and confused at first, though that was understandable at the time since he'd supposedly been unconscious for quite a while. However... When I, a couple nurses, came in to try and and chest his vitals, blood pressure, lucidity, excetera, the results were... Not positive."

"How so?" Kite asked almost without thinking, but Dr. Amori answered him, and all of them, anyway.  
"Well, in short, then moment that any of us made any physical contact with him, he lashed out and became hysterical, showing an abnormal amount of strength that I've _never_ seen the likes of. It took three security guards to actually pin him down so we could sedate him, which he definitely wasn't happy about. Once he was out, we restrained him to the bed, which didn't blow over too well once he woke up later. After he regained consciousness, I worked to try and figure out why exactly he reacted the way he did, and throughout most of the conversation he seemed dazed and kept saying things that didn't make sense. So, we kept observing him for awhile longer, and, eventually, we noticed that he... was displaying all the same symptoms that we typically see with... rape victims."  
The sounds that a few of them of made were not things that were meant to be described, and, needless to say, none of them were even too sure how to fully react to that.  
"W-what?" Madoka questioned shakily, suddenly horrified at the mere thought of... "B-but why? He wasn't... Was he...?"  
Fortunately, Dr. Amori shook his head.  
"Thankfully, no." The man responded, "He allowed us to do a rape-kit on him, but we found nothing in his system that indicated sexual assault of any kind... However, that does leave us wondering why exactly he's acting this way... Either way, we had to move him up here, since his PTSD was very evident and needed to be expertly handled."  
Madoka nodded her head, and then spoke again.  
"So... Should we come back another time, or...?" She asked slowly, but Dr. Amori simply shook his head with smile.  
"No, no, not at all." He said reassuring, "Post Traumatic Stress or not, I don't doubt he'll be happy to see all of you - he seems to enjoy company whenever possible, just as long as the people in the room are within his line of sight. I very strongly advise, though, that you all refrain from making physical contact with him as long as you can help it - specifically upper body, but I wouldn't chance it, however. And if he starts getting hysterical or disoriented at all, be sure to get someone immediately."

"Okay..." Madoka said almost breathlessly and nodded, "Anything else?"

"No, that's about it." Dr. Amori said reassuringly, "Just be sure to try and not upset him; the results are typically less than great for the people around him."

"Okay..." Madoka said with a nod, "Uh, can I ask about Minoru, too?"

"Mr. Hagane's brother, yes?" Dr. Amori questioned, and Madoka nodded, "He checked out yesterday; his health was far better than Mr. Hagane's was, so we were able to allow it. He was here to see Mr. Hagane briefly before leaving, though."  
To that, Madoka just nodded, while some of the younger bladers looked at each other in concern at that. They hadn't heard about that before then, and they were wondering if Tsubasa had known that the younger of the two had been checked out at all.  
Probably not, but even still...

"Mr. Hagane." Dr. Amori called into the room from the doorway, "You have visitors."  
At this, they were given the permission to head inside, and they did, one after another. They were almost nervous to find out what they would see, but they soon found that there was no need - there was just Gingka, sitting there, and smiling at them with a bit of a relieved and weary look on his face.  
In truth, he didn't look or seem to bad. He was wearing the standard hospital clothes that they always had you wear, with his headband currently off, placed on the table beside him along with a glass of what appeared to be apple juice, allowing his bangs beneath to fall into his eyes. He was sitting up, which was good, and had his legs covered by the white sheet of the bed, of which they knew he was barely able to move at the moment.  
He had IV in his arm, which was to expected, and, while he did look fairly tired, there was something about it, something distant in his eyes, that was probably from more than just being under sedatives and having woken up from a coma only a few days earlier.  
"Hey..." He greeted them in a half-whisper that seemed a little louder in the mostly quiet room than it probably was. Madoka simply sighed and crossed her arms, looking crossly at the redheaded blader, though the look had a much softer tone it would probably would normally.  
"You have _got_ to stand landing yourself in the hospital, Mr." The brunette said sternly, though the shakiness of relief was evident to anyone.  
Gingka simply gave her an apologetic smile, and shrugged his shoulders softly.  
"I'll let you all visit for awhile." Dr. Amori said before he slipped out the door and walked off back down the hall the way they had originally came.  
"Let me guess..." Gingka said once Dr. Amori had left the room, looking back to his friends at the end of his bed, "He gave you the lecture on the do's and don't's?" The rest of them looked at him, surprised, and, upon seeing those expressions, Gingka simply smiled and chuckled softly, "I heard him talking to you guys outside the door."

"Oh, well..." Madoka started awkwardly, "Yeah, he did.."  
Gingka just nodded.  
It took a few moments before any of them really dared to move, and the first one to do so was Madoka, who came up to stand beside Gingka on their left hand side of his bed. The rest them soon followed suit, all gathering around the redhead's bed, though being sure not to come in contact with him.  
As Dr. Amori had indicated, he didn't seem too bothered with having a bunch of people around, so that was good.  
"So, how have you been doing?" Madoka asked.  
"Well, probably as good as anyone can without being able to move their legs and being in the psychiatric ward." Gingka said, and a few of them internally flinched at the reminder of that, "So, all in perspective I guess..."

"Yeah, well..." Ren started almost hesitantly, "This place doesn't sound too cheerful, judging from the... You know... _Sounds_.."  
Gingka just shrugged again.  
"I don't usually hear them that much." He said, "As far as I know, they typically put us Post Traumatic Stress cases as far away from those ones as possible."

"Smart, I guess..." Shinobu said somewhat offhandedly.  
"Have they been..." Madoka started, uncertain, "...Treating you okay?.. I-I know you don't like doctors all that much, so..." She asked this because she, as well as a few others, had uncomfortably noticed the red abrasions on the redhead's wrists, as well as the few small bandages that had been placed there as well.  
She remembered Dr. Amori saying that they had put restraints a couple days ago, and that it 'hadn't blown over too well'. Clearly, it probably hadn't.  
"They're not too bad..." The redhead replied, almost uneasily, and for a moment they were confused on whether or not he meant the doctors or his wrists, for self-consciously covered his left wrist with his right hand, seeming to both hide it and tuck into himself a bit, "Checkups are annoying, but they're not bad people, overall. They're a bit edgy around us, but they seem to know what they're doing."

It was uncomfortably awkward in the room, and no one else really knew what to do or say at all. How could they?  
They cared about Gingka, yes, and they were friends, most definitely... But, now that they were _here_ \- in the psychiatric ward of the hospital, with a man that they all cared about that they had not known now had PTSD until now - it was a little uncomfortable. As familiar as they were with Gingka, none of them knew what to do around someone who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress; well, obviously there was the point of doing what you could to not remind them of the experience, since it would most likely cause distress, but that was the problem. None of them knew what _actually_ happened to him for him to have suffered such trauma.  
Well, there was the fact that he had been _dying_ about a month or so earlier, but that didn't seem likely to have been the case, so...  
Suddenly, Gingka sighed softly, with a hint of irritation lacing off of the sound and drawing their attention.

"Would you all just _stop it_ , already?" He asked, annoyance present in his voice as he looked down mostly towards his lap.  
"Stop what?..." Kite asked hesitantly, and Gingka almost immediately look up.  
"All of it!" He said, shocking them slightly, and they were surprised to see that he actually looked a little angry, along with a trace of earnest ( _desperation_ ), "You're all tip-toeing around me like I'm some sort of delicate little flower, and I'm _not_. You're barely even _saying_ anything, and that's even worse!"

"Gingka, we're not trying to-" Madoka tried to say, but she was cut short when Gingka looked over at her.  
" _Yes_ , you are." He said firmly, before his expression softened to something forlorn, and he looked down again, "... I'm an idiot, I know, but I'm not stupid enough to not see it."  
Madoka's, Maru's, and Zyro's eyes widened at that, having remembered the redhead saying something quite similar long before they had ever known he had been dying, when they sat at the kitchen table and eaten pop tarts.  
He and Zyro had eaten pop tarts, but that was besides the point.

"It's always the same thing..." The redhead said with a sigh, "People always tend to fuss over someone who's physically injured, but nobody _ever_ knows what to do or say when it's a mental issue. I _know_ I'm traumatized, but that doesn't mean that you have to treat me like I'm going to freak out at any given moment! I can see you doing it... You keep looking at my wrists, and you keep wondering what the _hell_ is wrong with me!..." None of them said anything, and the redhead looked down at both of his wrists, having now uncovered his left one, "I don't want you all to just stand there and say _nothing_ and just stare because I've had _enough_ of that as it is! I just want someone to say something so that I don't have to keep _thinking_ about all the things he said, because whenever it's quiet he's always _there_ and I can't help it!"  
All of them looked at each other, suddenly confused.  
What was he talking about?  
What did he mean by 'he'?  
Was he talking about Dr. Amori?  
Someone else?

"I'm scared, okay?..." The redhead admitted, causing all of them to look back at him, somewhat shocked.  
Gingka just sat there, fingers gripping the sheet covering him from the waist down lightly, a look on his face that could be told as one emotion - frustration, strain, fear, anger, all of it.  
"I'm scared of closing my eyes and seeing him again, and I get scared when it's quiet and nobody says anything because I can _hear_ him all over again... And I'm scared when someone touches me, because all I ever feel is him, and I hate it because I'm scared that I'm going to hurt someone!... And I _did_..."

"What do you mean?" Maru asked half-curious half-concerned.

"One of the nurses.. When I first woke up..." The redhead began, raising one hand briefly and wiping at his eyes, "...They didn't know, and they came in... And I don't know what she was doing, but she touched me, and then I was back there and I freaked out... I didn't mean too.."

"Gingka.." Madoka said softly, wanting more than anything than to put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but knew that would be a bad idea and held back, "I-I'm sure it's fine... You didn't mean too-"

"No, but I did..." The redhead said, shaking his head, not daring to look up, "I can't remember what happened exactly but I freaked out, and I threw her into the wall... Harder than I meant too, and I dislocated her _shoulder_ and gave her a concussion... Dr. Amori told me that..."  
All of them were suddenly struck silent, completely unsure of what to say now. Of all things, they hadn't expected that.  
Surely just pushing someone into a wall didn't cause dislocation and a concussion, right?  
"I hurt her..." The redhead said again, looking down towards his hands, "I hurt someone, and that scares because I _know_ that I could that again."

"Oh come on." Ren said with a roll of her eyes, though it was in as consoling a way as possible, "It was accident! You didn't mean for that... Besides, you'd never hurt someone on purpose if you could help it."  
For a moment, Gingka said nothing, but he didn't look up all the same.  
Then, after awhile, he spoke again...  
"I know..." He said softly, "But it doesn't matter... They've put me down as one of the more violent cases in here, and I can't stand knowing that because it just keeps reminding me of everything he said!.." More glances were exchanged around them, before they looked back at the redhead, "I'm just like him... That's what he told me.. And I tried to deny that, I _tried_ , but I hurt someone, and I'm scared because I'm starting to think he might be right!... And I don't want him to be... I don't..." He sighed through his nose, seeming to force himself to try and calm down, "..I don't," He began, "want all of you to start treating me like some kid because of this... I _know_ I'm not okay, but I don't need you to act like it. I just want to feel like I'm normal for a bit..."

There was another moment of silence where nobody dared to speak, leaving Gingka sitting there, trembling for several different reasons.  
What did he mean? Was this the supposed 'nonsense' that Dr. Amori had mentioned earlier?  
"Gingka..." Madoka tried again, "What did you mean earlier? Who's 'he'? Who told you that?..."  
All of them looked at the redhead, uncertainly, a cold feeling filling the air.  
Slowly, Gingka looked over towards the brunette, a forlorn expression on his face that broke her heart.  
"Mizarice..." He said solemnly, and the room suddenly felt cold.  
Without him even having to tell them, they felt they already knew who he was talking about. But even still, Zyro still asked the question that hung uselessly in the air.  
"Who's Mizarice?" He asked softly, and Gingka looked towards him.  
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..." He said hopelessly, shaking his head.

After that, the room was scarily silent again, and nobody knew what to do.  
If anything, Gingka had certainly made a point - don't treat him like he was going to suddenly break - even if that point was a bit intensely subjected.  
Even with that, though, they had no idea what to say about all that he had just told them - because how could they?  
Clearly, it was probably something that he was recalling, but not something he was entirely willing to tell them, considering how he thought that they wouldn't believe him. However, they all thought better than pushing the subject.  
It was only a few more moments before someone finally did, and that someone was Ren - and with a far more unexpected subject than they would have expected.

"Do you like cupcakes?" She asked suddenly, leaning forward across the bed slightly without touching him his legs, causing everyone else to look at her, wide-eyed and confused.

"Uhh... What?.." Gingka asked quietly, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you like cupcakes?" Ren asked again.

"Umm.. Yeah, a bit..." The redhead responded.

"Good!" Ren exclaimed happily, "There's this _great_ cupcake shop down the street, and _I_ am going to go get you one because _you_ need cheering up."

"I don't know if they allow those up here..." Gingka said slowly and speculatively, but Ren waved it off.

"Doesn't matter!" She said, "If you ask me, you need a cupcake to cheer yourself up, so I am going to head down there and get you one."

"Oh, I'll come!" Maru offered enthusiastically.

"Since when is there a cupcake shop in town?" Shinobu asked, tilting his head to the side a bit.  
"I dunno, but they're really good." Ren said enthusiastically, "You should come and check it out."  
Shinobu looked at her weirdly for a moment before slowly shrugging his shoulders.  
"Okay, I guess..." He said, before yelping in surprise and Ren sprang forward, grabbed his wrist, and enthusiastically pulled him out the door with a quick wave of temporary farewell, Maru following excitedly at the heels of the two teenagers.

"Well then..." Madoka started, sweat-dropping, "I guess they'll be back eventually."  
Gingka gave a soft, muffled laugh at that, while Zyro, Kite, and Eight laughed wholeheartedly in turn. That also got Madoka giggling softly as well.  
At the moment, those three could have gone anywhere - at least it had gotten Gingka to smile a little, even in a down and out place like this. Maybe a cupcake would make him feel better, as Ren had indicated previously.  
"Um..." Gingka started a little awkwardly afterward, causing the remaining four of them to look towards him, "Sorry, but would, uh... Would one of you mind turning that mirror away over there?"  
He pointed over to the side of the room directly opposite from him, where the four of them saw a fairly good-sized stand up mirror facing directly towards the redhead on the shelf.

"Uh, sure.." Zyro said with a shrug, walking over to it and gingerly placing the mirror face down, being careful not to damage it. "Is that good?" He asked, looking towards Gingka again.  
"Yeah, thanks..." The blader in question said quietly with a grateful smile, "...They keep putting it back..."  
Only Madoka, the one closest to him, heard the last part, and it worried her.  
All of this worried her, and she couldn't help it. As much as he had pleaded them to not treat him like a child, the brunette couldn't help but think about the whole matter again, unsure of exactly what to think.  
One thing she _was_ sure of, however, was that she most possibly knew who exactly this 'Mizarice' was; because she remembered the words he had spoken as clear as day.

 _"You haven't even asked my_ name _yet, but even so, I don't_ need _to tell you that... That can come from Gingka..._ "

And indeed it had.


	38. Epilogue

Epilogue

* * *

Two and a half weeks passed since that day in the hospital with Gingka, and, fortunately enough, things had very well improved for the group that had returned after what had seemed like an endless journey.  
The younger bladers got back into their regular routines, participating in Bey Battles with all sorts of people and each other, while Madoka and Maru managed to get back into regular business at the B-Pit, where it was as busy as ever.  
Benkei had gotten back to work at Bull Burger after a week-long absence, and many people were more than happy to see the Manager back in the place that he loved.  
Kira hadn't really stuck around with them for too long after they got back, and had almost seemed a little hesitant, even when leaving awhile after Zyro had said that he didn't owe him anymore - whether or not he actually went back to the rest of the former DNA bladers was unknown to the rest of them, considering they knew that it possible they could (still) be a little upset with him. Even so, the multicolor-haired boy had seemed rather irritated with his usual amount of sass at the fact, stating: "Well, they'll have to stop acting like whiny teenagers at some point".  
Zyro had been unable to stifle a laugh.

True to his own word, although it had been unknown to them, Kyoya had indeed contacted Tsubasa once more not a few days after receiving the news of Gingka and his brother's survival, and the silverette had had to take about an hour off duty to actually fully explain the whole thing as best as he could.  
Kyoya had seemed pretty accepting of it, actually seeming quite smug and as cocky as he usually was; Tsubasa wasn't surprised to hear him mention that he would still have a chance to defeat Gingka after all these years, which relieved him in the fact that it was evidence to both that Kyoya was getting better, and that things were hopefully starting to return to normal.  
Gingka was, naturally, still in the hospital, and still in the psychiatric ward, although the doctors seemed to be, as they noticed whenever any of them visited, a little less wary around the redhead and had a bit of a more casual air to them, though still with the usual caution that came with PTSD patients. By now, the redhead had started both psychiatric and physical therapy, the former being one that he evidently didn't like very much (some of them might have even said loathed, though they never said that in his presence), and the latter being one that he seemed to be doing fairly good in. Slowly but surely did it assure that he would get the strength back in his legs, which it was doing fairly well at accomplishing, with sessions being almost everyday except Tuesdays and Saturdays, and going on for several hours. None of them were permitted to visit during this time; whether because it was hospital protocol or because Gingka didn't want them too was not certain to them. Physical Therapy in general was already difficult as it was, but, in Gingka's case, it was made even more difficult with the fact that it require some physical contact between himself and the therapist at times, which Gingka was still instinctively and actively not happy about. Even so, he was getting better, physically even if not too much psychologically, so that was a positive at least.  
However, in all the time through when they had been back, none of them had seen Minoru. They probably would've assumed that the blue-haired man had simply up and left the first chance he got had Gingka not continuously stated that his younger brother came and saw him almost every day.  
They were never there when Minoru was, though, who seemed to be trying to avoid them. Gingka had explained that it was a matter of that the younger twin was a bit intimidated by them, which a few of them found a little absurd in the fact that Minoru had to power to command all of them to his will if they so wished.  
However, they took Gingka's word for it, and didn't really try too hard to find Minoru, since they had no idea where he went other than the hospital - Gingka didn't know either since the younger had never said  
anything about it, and he himself had never asked, so they were at a dead end for that. At some instances, though, a few of them thought that they saw the telepath out of the corner of their eyes sometimes, though they had never been sure; Madoka had also sworn a couple times that she glimpsed him when she went to the hospital within the dense crowd of doctors, nurses, patients, and visitor.  
Whatever the case, all of them still continued on with their regular lives, though the tournament had not started back up yet due to further delay. Many people had grown used to it by now, but the younger bladers really couldn't help but wonder how it would blow over once it _did_ start up again; though they doubted it would be before the school year started.

That day it was raining, the sky blanketed over with a thick sheet of dark grey-blue clouds, the rain pouring down in the streets of Metal Bey with thing such as mercy to speak over for those who had no coats or umbrellas.  
Fortunately, Zyro, Ren, and Shinobu were among those who had such things, although the winds that gusted strongly through the streets didn't make things too much better. None of them were complaining though, since with all the hot weather this summer they were due for a little rain. Despite the cold and wet conditions it did nothing to dampen (no pun intended) their mood, which was quite upbeat and perky. After all the things that they had been through, rain was not something they were going to be irritated about.  
"I'm telling you!" Ren said earnestly to Shinobu as they went on in their heated discussion about a science lab situation that had gone a little haywire in Ren's class the previous school year, "It was like she didn't even _listen_ for the entire unit, it was ridiculous! She picked up _sugar_ instead of sodium which wrecked the whole thing! So of _course_ it exploded and then she blamed it on me!"

"Okay, but _why_ , exactly?" Shinobu questioned, "Earlier you mentioned that you guys were friends, didn't you?"

"Well,yeah." Ren said with a small roll of the eyes, "We're friends, and I love 'er, don't get me wrong... But she's a coward, and don't even _try_ to criticize me for saying that, because everybody knows it! And either way, it makes sense that she would blame me since I sorta tend to accidentally set things on fire in the science lab anyway..."  
At this, Ren gave a sheepish look, while Shinobu raised an skeptical eyebrow.  
Zyro stiffed a laugh from behind the two of them, and Ren sent him angrily flustered look.  
"Hey, don't laugh!" She said, turning her head forward and seeming to almost pout, "It's like I did it on purpose!"  
Zyro chuckled softly anyway, not being too surprised at the prospect of Ren setting a lot of things in the science lab on fire (albeit accidentally). He watched as she and Shinobu kept on in their conversation, trailing along right at their heels as the sound of heavy raindrops pattered down on their umbrellas.  
It was nostalgic... And whether or not it was the nostalgia or something else, something out of the corner of his eye that he saw, a force that pulled him, or just simple coincidence, Zyro looked over across the street as the three of them were just about to turn the corner, and saw the Metal Bey City graveyard, iron gates slightly ajar as they most typically were.  
The graveyard was always a gloomy looking place, but it was even more so at night and when it was raining, which caused a light, haunting mist to rise up from the roads and spread over the ground in a vague fog that didn't go up past the knees.  
Zyro stopped walking just as they were about to turn the corner onto the next street that intersected the one they were walking on, but it wasn't because of how slightly spooky the graveyard looked at the moment.  
It was because he saw someone in there, dressed entirely in a black raincoat with a hood and black boots, with an equally as black umbrella hovering over their head as they seemed to place something down on the ground, or pick something up.  
Now, of course, it was impossible to tell whether they were male or female, and it really could've been any person dressed in black going to visit someone's grave in there, but, somehow, Zyro knew that it wasn't just _anyone_. He had seen that raincoat, those boots, that umbrella before, had known them almost all his life, even if they weren't entirely the same.  
His dreams had always been the same, and, even through it all, so had _he_.

"Hey, Zyro, you coming?" Ren's voice asked from the end of the corner, and Zyro looked towards both of his friends who looked at him in wonder. Under other circumstances, he would've been tagging along again in a heartbeat, but, this time, he felt that there was someone more important to do rather than head over to the B-Pit for some hot chocolate with Madoka and Maru.  
"Uh..." He started, "No, actually. I think I'll hang back a bit - tell Madoka I'll be there in a bit!"  
The two of them looked at him strangely for a moment, but, upon glancing over towards where Zyro's body was facing (the graveyard), both of them seemed to understand. Even if not in the way that they might think they understood.  
"Sure." Shinobu said with a nod, "We'll see you in a bit. Be careful."  
Zyro nodded.  
"You too!" He said cheerfully, before pressing the button on the lamp post and waiting for the walking sign to come up before he crossed to the other side of the street that the graveyard was on. He briefly glanced back to watch Ren and Shinobu go, before he himself jogged up to the iron gates. Gingerly did he push them open, only the slightest, high-pitched creak of the half-rusted hinges ringing out into the air, making him cringe a bit.  
The person in the graveyard didn't seem to hear, though, over the sound of the rain, and Zyro saw that they had moved to another place than where they had originally been. Being mindful of them, Zyro walked through the maze of headstones all the way over to where they were now kneeling and placing a flower at the foot of one the headstones.  
Only by the picture frame and the several other dead flowers there did Zyro recognize who's grave it was - Sakyo's.  
Just in front of the picture frame that held that selfie that Takanosuke had taken quite awhile ago the person delicately placed a blue hyacinth, being careful not to disturb anything else that was placed there. Zyro wasn't the best on the symbolism of flowers, but he knew that hyacinths of some sort represented sincerity of whatever kind.  
It appeared that Hikaru had not been the only one who thought the type and color of flowers were important.

"Hey." Zyro said loudly enough for the other to hear him once they had stood.  
The other jumped slightly, unsuspecting of the boy who stood only a few meters from him, and turned his head to look at the younger that stood not too much shorter than he himself did. Slowly, the startled look on his face faded, and, with a forlorn grief that Zyro was more familiar with than he probably should be, Minoru adverted his eyes.  
"Hi, Zyro..." He said softly, clutching the umbrella over his head awkwardly in his hands, "S-sorry, I... I know I shouldn't be here, I just..." Golden-brown eyes looked down at the grave at his feet again, "...I wanted to pay my respects, is all.."  
Softly, Zyro shrugged his shoulders.  
"Well, that's fine." The ginger-ravenette said with a smile, "I'm sure they would appreciate it."  
Minoru didn't seem too convinced of that.  
"I doubt it..." He said with a sigh and a shake of the head, "Typically, you don't really want the person - or at least some variation of them - who killed you leaving flowers on your grave... Besides, they were _you're_ friends, not mine... So, I can leave if you want."

"No, no, it's okay!" Zyro said, waving his hand in the air dismissively, before scratching his cheek, "I didn't really know them too well myself, to be honest... I think it's nice, though, that you wanted to leave something for them."  
Minoru looked away somewhat awkwardly, a guilty light in his golden-brown eyes that were so similar to Gingka.  
"Soooo..." Zyro began, "Where have you been these past couple weeks? We've all kinda been wondering, since the only place we kinda know you go is the hospital to see Gingka..." Minoru didn't answer right away, and looked around briefly before spotting a single bench under the outdoor patio of a small building in the graveyard.  
He then looked towards Zyro, almost nervously.  
"Do you... Want to get out of the rain, first?" The bluenette asked, and Zyro nodded in agreement. After all, standing in a graveyard in the cold wind with rain beating down on you wasn't the most ideal setting to talk.  
Both of them navigated their way through the mass of the graves (far more than one should probably be comfortable with, even in a city this big) until they finally came under the outdoor roof of the concrete patio, closing their umbrellas (Minoru lightly shaking his off), and then sitting down on the bench where they could sit without the weather to disturb them. Hoods down, the two of them sat in an almost uncomfortable silence, contradictory to the way it had always felt for all those years that they would spend their days (or nights, or whichever).  
What was familiar, however, was the rain, even though it had made no sound in those dream, nor touched them - it was the familiarity of it that Zyro cherished.

"I would always see you in the rain.." He said abruptly, causing Minoru to look over at him.  
"Yeah..." The other said softly, before looking back out at the graveyard, a light mist covering the rain as the rain beat down on the headstones, "...I always liked the rain, personally. I found calming... My uncle was gracious enough to let me go out and play in it every now and then... I guess that _might've_ been why the scenery was always like that. I'm not sure."  
Zyro looked over towards the elder, curiously.  
"How did you make those dreams, exactly?" The ginger-ravenette asked, "I always kinda thought of you as just a reoccurring thing from my imagination, until now... I never really did too much about how they kept happening, really."  
Minoru shrugged his shoulders, clearly unsure himself.  
"I don't know." He said, "I'm not too sure I even made them at all... To tell the truth, I somewhat thought of you as the same thing, before Alcorin. I would always get... Bad feelings... I never knew how I knew bad things were going to happen, I just sort of... _Did_ , I guess. I never knew what those dreams were about whenever I had them, but I felt that, somehow, I could trust you. Having you around was comforting, even though I more took to comforting you, being older and all... Maybe I did make them. There's always been a lot I haven't understood about my powers.."

Zyro chuckled a bit.  
"That makes two of us!" He said enthusiastically, and saw Minoru looking at him questionably for a moment, "Though, I didn't really know I had any like _that_ until then. Cool to know, though!"  
The bluenette looked at him for a moment longer, and then looked down towards the ground. A solemn expression lay on his face, that ever present sorrow, forlorn guilt, clearly written there.

"You didn't _have_ to save me, you know..." He said softly. Zyro's smile disappeared, and he looked towards the elder again. When the Ifraid Blader said nothing, Minoru took it as the okay to keep talking. "You had no real reason too..." He said, just loud enough for Zyro to hear, "Even if Alcorin isn't me, _I've_ done some rather unsavory things myself. You didn't have to forgive me for all of it, either... You could've just saved Gingka and left me, like I told you too... I was _so sure_ I couldn't be saved by that point, since I was already too far gone in him. Gingka, I understand, he's worth saving far more than me... So... Why _would_ you?"  
Zyro wasn't sure exactly what to say to that. He was struck silent by that question, and wondered himself for a moment. However, it didn't take long before he had his answer. Resolute, the blue-eyed boy looked up towards Minoru again.  
"That's not really a question, to be honest." The raven said bluntly, causing the blue-haired man to look over towards him in confusion, "I think it should be obvious, really. I know I didn't _have_ too, and maybe a few of the others thought so too, but... Gingka was right. Alcorin's an entirely different person compared to you, and you didn't do any of the things that he did. You'd been trying to help us the whole time! I'm assuming that's what all the voices we're about. And..." Zyro rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I really couldn't kill anyone, anyway!"  
Minoru smiled softly at that, since he especially knew that to be true.  
"Besides..." Zyro continued on, and looked towards the elder with a reassuring look, "You and Gingka - you're twins! When Gingka asked me to destroy you two, he meant of you. Same for when he gave me the option to save both of you... Really, I didn't want to be the one to separate you two again, since I know that he and you didn't deserve that."

"You sound really sure of yourself, on that..." Minoru said softly, a hint of admiration in his voice.  
"Well, yeah!" Zyro said with an upbeat smile, "I've known you forever! Besides... I'm not about to just _not_ let you have a chance to actually live at life."  
Minoru continued to look at the boy for a moment, calm, considering. Slowly, he smiled - a smile that the boy had very rarely seen in those dreams of theirs - and looked out towards the rain drenched city again.  
"I guess Gingka really was right when he said that I created something good..." He said, and looked down for a moment, before turning to look towards Zyro again, "You really are amazing, you know that?"  
The Ifraid Blader seemed surprised by the comment, but chuckled a bit with a bit of his usual, more cocky attitude, though still with a bit of modesty present.  
"Uh, thanks!" He said with a little pride, and Minoru actually _laughed_ at that.  
"I know I've been avoiding most of you, but..." The bluenette said as his laughter died down, "We should talk more. Get together some time, or something."

"Yeah, sure!" Zyro said in excited agreement, before a sudden idea struck him. With wide and excited eyes, the Ifraid Blader leaned forward with almost visible sparkles around his face. "Hey, you should come to the B-Pit with us!" The raven suggested enthusiastically, "Me, Ren, and Shinobu were just gonna meet Madoka and Maru there for some hot chocolate. You should come! It'd give you a chance to get to know some of us better!"  
Minoru seemed a bit taken aback by that, and stared awkwardly at the younger boy for a moment.  
"I don't know if that would necessarily be appropriate, I mean..." He trailed off in a small voice, but Zyro just smiled encouragingly.  
"I'm sure they wouldn't mind!" He said, "Besides, they've been eager to talk to you anyway, since we haven't seen you in awhile! Come on, it'll be fun!"  
Minoru was silent a moment, considering this argument (though it wasn't too much of an argument, really) thoroughly, a slightly nervous look on his face. He knew it was unreasonable, but he was always uncomfortable on the prospect of facing the rest of them after all that his other half had put them through.  
Still, though, Zyro did make a point even if it wasn't entirely spoken. He had been afraid for a lot of his life, and had spent most of his time hiding, running, living in the shadows of Alcorin and of his brother, just as the stars did. He had stood up at the end, though, even if only for a short time. Maybe it _was_ about time that he stopped running from all the things he was afraid of...  
After all, _he_ was the one who had control again, and he wasn't about to let it slip from him as it once had so easily.  
The bluenette sighed softly through his nose, and gave a soft, slightly timid, smile in Zyro's direction.  
"Yeah, okay..." He said in agreement, "Sure."

"Great!" Zyro exclaimed happily before standing and pulling the elder up along with him (which wasn't too hard, considering they were roughly of the same sort of build and size) much to Minoru's surprise, "Let's go then! Ren and Shinobu are probably already there, by now."

Pulling up his hood and opening his umbrella again, Zyro started off once more through the graveyard and headed towards the gates, leaving Minoru standing there for a moment.  
The elder just stood there for a moment, staring after the Ifraid Blader in surprise, awe, and admiration at how full of life he was, how forgiving...  
He closed his eyes, bowing his head slightly and smiling. He and Gingka really were so alike...  
Minoru, in turn, pulled up his hood and opening his umbrella once more (being careful not to do so under the patio roof), and quietly, but peacefully, went to catch up with the young blader, who stood at the gates waiting for him. They exited the yard together, neither of them minding the creak that the doors made so very often.  
Together they walked side-by-side on the sidewalk, best friends once more, neither minding the rain or the wind or the cold anymore if they previously had, and leaving in the knowledge that the souls that had been condemned by his other half were, hopefully and truly, at peace.

Though as they both crossed the street, Zyro practically pulling Minoru along excitedly with the latter allowing it contentedly, neither of them noticed the pitch black car with tinted windows on the opposite side of the street, which, after a brief pause and a phone call from within, drove away into the rain-drenched, mist-covered streets...

* * *

The Tokyo WBBA was always a busy place, as was natural for a corporation that was basically the head of government of Japan, so, of course, it was only natural that people would be running through the offices with papers to get to meetings, that phones would be ringing frequently from around everywhere, that it would be loud and full of chatter with business and other important matters. However, while today was very much the same, it was also far different, and for a very good reason.  
The exact same reason that Director Hideyoshi now stalked briskly through the halls with a very satisfied look on his face, Naomi following obediently behind him with an Ipad in her arms, flipping through and reading across many different things as she followed along in his footsteps.

"Well, this has been a very productive day, if I do say so myself." Director Hideyoshi said with pride as he made his way towards one of the many elevators that lined the building, "Wouldn't you agree, Naomi?"

"But of course." The brown-haired woman said tightly, her eyes never leaving the device in her arms, "This is the biggest news we've had in years about this, or at _all_ , truly."

"Yes, indeed." Hideyoshi said in agreement, pushing his glasses expertly up on his nose, "After all of these years, we're finally getting back what was always ours. Everyone in the AETL is quite thrilled at the news. I don't doubt he will be as well."  
Both of them finally came to the elevator, which opened with a 'ding!' upon the button being pressed, revealing the stark white-silver insides that made up most of the walls of the building. Hideyoshi stepped halfway in - mostly as a maneuver to keep the door open - before he turned to look at his right-hand assistant.  
"I want you to stay up here and make sure everything is running as smoothly as possible until I return." The Director instructed, "I'm going to give him the good news."

"Yes, sir." Naomi said obediently with a nod of her head, before she turned and walked back towards the offices.  
Satisfied, Hideyoshi stepped fully into the elevator, which closed behind him once he swiped the dark grey key card across a card reader beside the buttons. He waited a few moments, patiently, his smug and satisfied smile never leaving his lips.

After a short while, the elevator door opened once more, letting him out into a hall of metal-plated walls, colored a dull green that was easy on the eyes, where several men and woman in white uniforms and coats, as well as a few in dark suits, walked too and fro briskly.  
Hideyoshi easily made his way out into the hall, and was greeted by many passing person in respect, stopping every now and then to check with certain people how things were running - sure enough, they were all running smoothly with all the others, with all due preparations being made. As satisfied as ever, Hideyoshi made his way through the very halls, having only one destination in mind, of which he and many others went to often, but never as often as in the early years when he had actually been of use and interest.  
Of course, he was still useful, though weak, still interesting, though unstable, and Hideyoshi knew that more than anyone.

Footsteps ringing softly in the metal halls, he came before the metal doors that parted his room from the rest of the hall, and slid his key card through the card reader.  
The doors opened for him, and he walked into the brightly-lit, almost stuffy room, where he saw him sitting, as always, in the chair at the end of his bed, slumped forward and breathing heavily in exhaustion, long hair (which he always stubbornly refused to let them cut) falling over the sides and all around him.  
Smiling, Hideyoshi walked a short ways into the room, speaking once the boy raised his head slightly to look at him.  
"I have some good news for you, Kuro." Hideyoshi said in his usual proud, business-like manner, and the boy raised his head more until he was leaning against the back of the chair, eyes half-lidded, an unreadable look on his face, "We've found your older brother."

( _He never saw the darkening of disappointment in his eyes_ )

"And we're bringing him home."

* * *

 **Yup. Surprise again, bitches B3**

 **Guess what's not over? This storyline! And so I shall leave you all with this hateful cliffhanger! XD**

 **Ta ta for now~ I'll see you all when we go to what's gonna end this! OwO**


End file.
